The Phantom Nevermore: Ballad of the Fall
by Gerudo Punk
Summary: This is an AU of LaughingLefou's "The Phantom Nevermore." Summary: Cinder has lost 3 of the Pure Dust Crystals to this phantom thief and some military tech that she had stolen from Atlas. Beginning to lose patience, she decides to bring an old acquaintance out of retirement: Blaze. How will Jaune Arc deal with this new player?
1. Chapter 1

_**I don't own RWBY or The Phantom Nevermore. This is an AU of the events that occur at the end of LaughingLefou's original PN. I started getting in my head "how would Cinder react to all this?" And while watching RWBY, I always wanted them to expand on Cinder's story. LaughingLefou was kind enough to give me the go-ahead for this story, so let's give it a shot. Hope you all enjoy!**_

 _ **EDIT: So, this is a re-upload of the chapter after my bet read it. Hope you all enjoy!**_

 **Chapter 1: All I Want for Christmas is to Get Out of Prison**

"Huh," he muttered, as he heard the plate of food come in on the tracks at the bottom of the door. Considering that the slit under the door is only three inches high, even if it spanned the entire width of the door, he couldn't use it to escape. Looking up from his book, he decided to see what gruel he was expected to eat for dinner today. To his surprise, it was an amazing looking meal: steak, mash potatoes, a side of salad, and his favorite pop, Beowulf Crash.

He had to admit, he was surprised. However, that surprise quickly devolved into anger. He looked around the 1000'x1000' steel box he had been forced to live in for the past four years. The only thing in here was the mattress he slept on, a blanket, the clothes on his back, a toilet in the corner near the door (which is why he moved his mattress near the door from the other side of the room) and the book and picture he had sneaked in just before his captors had dropped the 70' steel door in his face, locking him in here. Oh, and there was the giant monitor on one of the walls to be used by anyone who was in the mood to screw with him. To one-sided conversations to simply torturing him with pictures of the world of Remnant, he'd had to deal with it all from the assholes who "guarded" him (like he needed any guards; even he wasn't strong enough to escape this place).

He knew that if he was getting something nice, then they wanted something from him. They probably wanted him to carry out a hit or gather intel for them. It pissed him off to the point where he almost just stayed on his mattress and read " _The Hunter's of Grimm_ ," leaving the food to go bad. Almost. Sadly, the guard responsible for placing food on the tracks underneath the door had "forgotten" to bring him anything to eat for the last two days. Honestly, part of him had hoped that they forgot he existed altogether, and that he could just wither away and rot in his cell. _Guess that still isn't an option._

He put the book down and walked over to the tray and picked up the food. As he was about to take it back to his bed so that he could eat and continue to reread his book (for the 1000th time), he noticed a slip of paper attached to the bottom of the tray. With one hand, he took off the tape and read the message: _"Congratulations. You're getting out early on good behaviour. Enjoy your meal. You will be released from the Goliath cage in an hour."_

' _Good behaviour'?! Is the bitch high?! What the hell could I possibly do in this hole that could be considered poor behaviour, let alone good behaviour?!_ He could feel his temper rising more and more. In an attempt to calm himself down, he took a slow, deep breath, held it for about 30 seconds, then slowly let it out. He felt calmer, or at least calm enough to crumple up the message, throw it on the tracks to head back to the guard, and walk back to his "bed."

About an hour later, with his meal finished and back to reading, he was actually surprised when the door opened, rising into the ceiling, especially after the little tantrum he threw (he knew he was under surveillance). _Huh. Guess she wasn't yanking my chain. But what the hell does she want?_

He figured he should stay in bed for a little while and see if anyone will come to him. Soon enough, a man with grey hair, wearing a blue-grey vest, and a woman with bright green hair and mocha skin, came out of the tunnel and walked right up to his bed.

 **XXXXX**

"Remember, Cinder said that he's extremely dangerous. According to Roman, he was our predecessor as Cinder's go-to."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. He's been stuck down here for what, three, four years? He's probably atrophied," replied Mercury. Emerald and Mercury where walking down the corridor to the Goliath cage to grab the man that Roman had dubbed the "Blood Hound."

"Whatever yourself, tough guy. Don't forget that you're still injured." Mercury grimaced at the reminder. Scratching the bandage around his head, he couldn't help but think about the night he got injured. He still couldn't believe that some newbie thief had got a hit on him. A hit so rough, that he still had dizzy spells when he got up too fast, even a couple weeks later. It spoke a lot for his physical constitution that he was doing so well.

As they reached the cage entrance, Emerald typed the entry code into the control panel on the wall to the left side of the door. As the 70' tall door rose into the ceiling, lights on the ground of the hallway lit up, leading to a bright open space at the end of the entrance. As they crossed over, Mercury couldn't help but be impressed by the size of it all. "Damn, they weren't kidding. This place really was built to hold a Goliath... Maybe even 10?"

"Shut up," Emerald grumbled, lifting her head, "There he is."

Not far from the door lying on his back with his feet crossed at the knees, was the so called "Blood Hound" that Cinder had employed before she had recruited them. Sadly, both Mercury and Emerald where a little disappointed.

For starters, the "Blood Hound" couldn't have been more then 18, just a little younger then they were. He had long, messy black hair, with bangs that made it difficult to see his eyes. He was wearing white flannel, prison style pajamas and scruffy socks. Set neatly next to the bed was the food tray. Despite the meal he had, they could see how thin he was through the baggy pajamas. Admittedly, that wasn't all that surprising, given how often the guards starved him.

And he was completely ignoring them, reading a dingy looking book. Mercury cocked his head to the side. "Is that a copy of the Hunter's fairy tale book for kids?" Emerald, just as confused as her partner, nodded. "How the hell did that get down here? He was supposed to have been imprisoned with nothing more then the cloth on his back," whispered Emerald. "Well... Why don't we go ask him?" With that, Mercury walked over to the bed that the stranger was laying on. Emerald just huffed, rolled her eyes, and followed her partner's footsteps.

 _He still hasn't even looked at us. What's up with that?_ thought Mercury, as he came to a stop next to the bed. He looked down, noticing that the food stuff wasn't as neat as he had originally thought. While the plate and utensils where all piled neatly together, nothing was on the tray.

"Hi, little guy, time to ge-" before Mercury could finish his sentence, the kid had swiveled on his bed, and kicked Mercury's legs out from under him. As he was falling, the kid grabbed the wooden tray, and brought it up, hitting Mercury in the face. He hit it so hard, his head actually broke through it, making a hole in the tray. Using the tray as leverage, the kid lifted Mercury back up, twisted him around, and kicked him in the back, breaking the tray in two and sending Mercury right back to the cage entrance, face first.

Emerald was shell-shocked. Did this punk just catch Mercury by surprise?

"Shit!" she growled. Quick as lightning, she unholstered her dual revolvers, unleashed the sickle setting, and swung them outwards in a X-style. Instead of dodging, the boy raised the half of the tray he was still holding, allowing the first sickle to imbed itself in the wood, and with a reaction time that Emerald had never seen before, stepped forward and grabbed the second chain just shy of the sickle end. He quickly looped it around his fist, and with a strength you wouldn't believe possible for the thin stick of a man, yanked her off her feet.

Too late, she remembered Roman's warning as they left their meeting with Cinder: " _Whatever you idiots do, DON'T get within arms reach of this guy. He's strong enough to rip apart a Ursa Major with his bare hands!_ "

As she was getting closer to him, Emerald tried to orient her body so that she could kick out at him. In hindsight, she should have just let go of the gun. He dropped the tray, stepped forward, and before Emeralds kick could connect, he punched her in the stomach so hard that she went crashing into the wall just next to the entrance. The shock of collision was so devastating that Emerald actually lost her grip on the sickle wrapped around his hand.

Mercury got up as Emerald went careening into the wall beside his head. He twirled around to see the "Blood Hound" standing a few meters away, Emeralds gun leveled at Mercury's head. In a raspy, dry voice, the "Blood Hound" said, "I won't do another job for Cinder. You have 10 seconds to give me the security codes to leave this facility, or you and your partner are dead."

Mercury tried to shake his head so that he could think straight. Thanks to the new blow to the head, his eyesight was swimming. "You do realize," "10," "-that even if you," "9," "-could kill us both, "8," "-you won't be getting past," "7," "-the 1st security wall." "6," "Why don't you just," "5," "-come quietly?" "4," Hell, we where the," "3," "-ones who let you out." "2."

Realizing that talking was useless, Mercury set himself up in a combat stance, ready to block the bullets with his Aura. "1-."

Mercury rushed the "Blood Hound," hoping to get in the first blow and even the score. He swung his leg upward in a fast, compact kick. The "Hound" moved one leg behind the other and angled his body so that the kick missed him by a hair. He then grabbed Mercury's raised leg and using his momentum, flipped him onto his back. Mercury tried to kick out with his free leg, but the "Hound" let go of his leg, jumped, and landed with one foot on each of his arms, effectively pinning Mercury in place.

"...0. Times up." He cocked the gun and aimed the barrel right between Mercury's eyes.

Mercury was in deep shit and he knew it. While his Aura was plenty strong, it was still attempting to repair his head injury from two weeks ago. Between that, a new head injury, getting kicked in the spine and landing flat on his face with enough force to skin him, he doubted that he had enough Aura left to block two bullets, let alone all six that where in the barrel.

 **XXXXX**

As Mercury was getting knocked flat on his back, Emerald was regaining consciousness. "Urgh..." She raised her head as the punk cocked her gun and aimed it between her partner's eyes, "...0. Times up."

Emerald reached for her other gun and aimed it at the "Hound," and fired. The punk noticed her just in time, and raised his arm so that the bullet wouldn't lodge itself in his brain. Instead of knocking his arm aside or being deflected by his aura, the bullet actually lodged itself into his arm, staining his long pajama sleeve red.

As he raised the gun to take aim at Emerald, a female voice resonated out of the hallway, "I believe that's quite enough, Blaze."

Out of the hallway came Blaze's worst nightmare and most hated enemy: Cinder, followed closely by Torchwick and Neo. _Great, just great. I was hoping to get out of here before the bitchtress and the rest of her crew got here._

"My, my, it's been so long Blaze. And here I thought you'd be happy to see me," drawled Cinder, seeing the look of disgust on his face before he could hide it. "Yeah," muttered Blaze in his raspy voice, "about as happy as seeing a pack of Beowolves while having my crotch covered in blood."

"Oh my. Isn't that quite the imagery you provoke?" teased Cinder. Blaze let out a frustrated breath as he rasped, "Well, you did give me plenty of time to think. Who knew I had such an active imagination? I gotta thank you for helping me discover that about myself." Instead of getting some form of guilty response (really, he knew better; why bother?), Cinder just laughed and said, "So glad to have been of service. Now, why don't you give my henchmen back her gun and get off her partner? Unless you feel like prolonging this charade?"

 _Great. She knows... Well, I guess it is a little obvious._ Cinder had noticed just how tired Blaze was. Over the past four years, he had been horribly malnourished, sometimes starved for days at a time, so as to keep him docile and make sure that he didn't try and escape. Even with the meal that he ate, if the fight between him and Cinder's two cronies had continued another minute he would have fainted from sheer fatigue. Sure, he probably could kill one of them before the other got him, but in the long run he'd wind up dead. Hell, he didn't even have enough Aura to manifest his Semblance at the beginning of the fight. And he would need his Semblance if he wanted to go toe-to-toe with Cinder, let alone the rest of her zoo crew.

"...Sure, what the hell." He tossed the revolver downward, the scythe end going straight into the cement. It came close to impaling Mercury, finding itself in the crook between his ear and his head. Blaze stepped off him and walked right up to Cinder. "So, what's up sis?" asked Blaze.

Emerald walked past Blaze, eyeing him wearily. Once she got to Mercury, she knelt down, grabbed her gun, and helped Mercury up. He groaned and mumbled, "Couldn't _someone_ have warned us that we were going to get _Cinder's brother_. That would have been useful info." Mercury was practically leaning on Emerald, his vision so blurred that he was seeing duplicates of his partner... Like the world needed more than one of the snarky chit.

Torchwick glared at them and said, "I warned you morons not to get close to him. I get that the three of us don't always get along, but would it kill you two to listen to me? Especially considering how not listening to me almost got you street rats killed tonight?" All he got for his speech was a vicious glare from Emerald... One that warned him to keep his good smokes and booze hidden under lock and key for the foreseeable future.

Neo rolled her eyes and said in her silent voice, [Like anyone gives a damn about what you say! Besides, this is a bad idea! We don't need to send _him_ in, I can get Jaune to come around-] "Can it Neo," said Torchwick and Blaze simultaneously. Neo bristled, but kept her temper in check. If it had just been Torchwick, she would have given him a piece of her mind. But she knew better then to show her temper to either one of the Fall siblings. In this moment, she truly hated Roman for teaching Blaze how to "hear" her talk.

Blaze turned his eyes back to Cinder... Or at least Roman assumed he did. It was hard to tell, what with those bangs going all the way down to the bridge of his nose. "Sooo... What do you want? I doubt you're letting me out of here out of the kindness of your cold, black heart. And I doubt you want me dead... Yet."

A ghost of a smile graced Cinder's face. "Your right. There is something I want you to do. Two things, actually. First off, I need more of your Semblance for the experiments," Blaze narrowed his eyes on her, "-and second, you will need to take out a couple of targets." At this, Blaze let out a slow breath, and said, "No. If it was just my Semblance, that'd be fine. But I am _done_ being your personal assassin." Cinder raised an eyebrow, then walked over to his mattress. "You talk as if you have a choice in the matter." She reached down and snatched a photo from under the corner of the mattress. _WHAT?! She couldn't have known that was there! I never took that picture out from under there since they dumped my ass down here._ Cinder walked back up to him and put the picture in the breast pocket of his pajama, in a manner that made sure no one present could see the pictures contents.

"Don't worry, this is a special job: if you complete it, along with anything else I ask you to do before you complete the mission, your free. You can go out in the world and become whatever you want. I'll give you the resources you need to set yourself up in whatever profession you'd like. And to top it all off, I'll stop blackmailing you. If you want, I'll even place _her_ under my protection."

He was silent for long enough to make Cinder's men, and woman, very nervous. "...When something's sounds to good to be true, it usually is. If you let me rest for a few days, and feed me _properly_ , then there shouldn't be a problem with my Semblance. Who are the two people you want whacked?"

Cinder looked downright smug at this point. "I want you to kill Jaune Arc and a thief whose going by the name of the Phantom Nevermore." Blaze, whose only visible emotions at this point had been disinterest, apathy, or mild irritation and disgust, was so floored by the chosen target that his jaw fell right open. It hung there for a few more moments, before he closed his mouth and swallowed. "I'm sorry, I must have misheard you. Did you say that you want me to kill an Arc? In Vale? How in the hell am I meant to disappear after taking out an Arc? Almost every male member of that family for the last three generations have been national heroes!"

[And he's mine! We can't kill him! Roman, tell Cinder to just give me a chance!] Roman nearly choked, before he turned to Neo and whispered, "Are you out of your mind? The only reason Cinder didn't kill me for losing the Spider Droid and the Paladins is that I knew the identity of the kid who destroyed them!" [If you don't help me with this, _I'll_ kill you!] He snorted. "At least it'll be a lot less painful then having Cinder kill me." The look on Neo's face would have made a lesser thug piss his pants.

Blaze glanced over his shoulder at Neo and said, "How about this: we'll set me up where I can be close to this Jaune fella, that way I can learn about him. However, my primary target will be the thief. Once the thief is dead, I can immediately go after Jaune. Neo, what if you used that time to win over Jaune? Does that seem fair to everyone here?"

While Emerald (Mercury was passed out by this point) wasn't sure what to make of this charitable attitude, Torchwick and Neo where downright flabbergasted. _What the hell is going on? Blaze used to be as cold as his sister. Maybe not as sadistic, but definitely as cold. What the hell happened four years ago?_ Neo's internal monologue closely resembled that of the more experienced criminal. _Huh? Who the hell is this, and what has happened to Blaze "Blood Hound" Fall? He's a cold-hearted bastard, not some sap. Why would he actually give me a chance? Even when he was my teacher he was never this nice. For Oum's sake, he hated me._

Not eliciting an answer from Neo, Blaze turns to Cinder. "I'm gonna guess that that's a yes by her. What about you?" If he expected Cinder to be surprised by his strange mood, he was quite disappointed. Her expression blank, Cinder said, "I have no problem with that. But you have yet to agree to my terms."

Blaze looked Cinder square in the eyes and said, "If you keep your word to me, that if I do this you'll help me become a free man and will completely vanish from my life _and_ you'll stop threatening her, then you got yourself a deal." A sinister smile grew on Cinder's face. "I'm so glad that we could do business."

"Hold up," he called out just as Cinder started to walk away. She turned around, one brow raised expectantly. "Shake on it?" asked Blaze, offering his hand. Cinder actually laughed, before saying, "Nice try, but I know better then to get within arms distance of you, especially after last time." He sighed and said, "Can't blame me for trying."

Cinder simply "hmphed," and murmured, "Yes, I very much can," before she turned back to the hallway. "All of you, follow me. We will patch up Mercury and Blaze, and then catch Blaze up to speed in regards to the targets."

By this point, Blaze had more or less tuned Cinder out. _Free. I'll actually be free. And all it'll cost is a little bit of my Semblance and two lives... Don't think like that. I'm a killer. What's a little more blood on my hands?_

While everyone else was exiting the room (Torchwick carrying the still unconscious Mercury), Blaze pulled his photo out of his breast pocket and took a quick peek at it before shoving it back in his pocket.

At first glance, the photo appeared to be a family portrait. The photo depicted what looked like a nice living room, with five figures standing in front of an ornate fireplace. From left to right, the occupants of where as follows: a middle-aged gentleman with short, military style hair, dressed in a fine white military uniform embroidered with medals on his lapels. Held in his arms appeared to be his wife; a kind looking lady with chocolate brown eyes and long, wavy black hair, dressed in a beautiful blue dress that accented her pale skin. Standing proudly to her left was what appeared to be a younger doppelganger of the older man, also wearing a white military uniform, only with fewer medals. And next to him was a younger Blaze, no more then 14 or 15, with short black hair, piercing silver-blue eyes and a wide grin, held in a headlock by an equally young and cheerful little girl. She was dressed in a simple orange dress, and like her father she had dark brown hair, but she had her mothers warm, kind gaze. _Maybe when this is all done, I can finally try and make amends to you._

 _ **A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. This is the first story I've ever written on this site, so if anyone would like to leave a review, or has any constructive criticism, please post it. It would be a lot of help. I hope to have another chapter up before the end of the year. For now, Merry Christmas, Happy Cuanza, ciao!**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Wow. So, apparently I can't keep to a schedule worth a damn. Apologies to anyone who enjoyed chapter 1; I really didn't mean for this to take so long. On the positive side, my beta reader is back on board! On the negative side, exams are in less then 2 weeks. So… yeah.**_

 _ **As an aside, my beta reader went over chapter 1, and I ended up making some changes. Nothing major, just some formatting changes. The only big difference is the last paragraph, which does change the story slightly. But if you don't want to re-read it, you won't be missing out on anything.**_

 _ **Anyway, enjoy chapter 2 part 1! The second half of this chapter should be up later today or tomorrow. I do not own RWBY, it belongs to it's respective creators.**_

 **Chapter 2: The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same (Part 1)**

All Jaune could think was, _Damn, that's cold!_ Fair assessment for having snow stuffed down the back of his jacket. "Pyrrha, what was that for?!" he asks, whirling around to face the redhead walking behind him.

Pyrrha, a doe-eyed look of innocence on her face, asks "What was what for?" Unbeknownst to Jaune, Sun was circling him and Pyrrha to dump another handful of snow down his coat.

"Come on Pyrrha, don't do that. It's freEEEEZING!" Jaune's sentence devolved into a shriek of discomfort as Sun slipped a second handful of snow down his back.

Team JNPR, along with Blake, Weiss, and Sun, where coming back from eating Christmas lunch at Nutcracker Diner, known for their famous pancakes, in downtown Vale. Jaune was still exiled from his family, Ren and Nora had nowhere else to go, and Pyrrha hadn't gone home because it was too dangerous to travel from Vale to Mistral this time of year. Blake and Weiss were also staying in the dorms during the holidays, while Ruby and Yang, along with Raven, had gone home to visit their father in Patch. They would be back in a few days.

Sun was laughing his ass off. Jaune didn't know that he had approached Pyrrha earlier in the day to ask her if she would help him play a prank on the lovable blonde. Sun was a little annoyed that Jaune had tried to "kill" him for uploading the video of him flat-out _destroying_ the Spider Drone onto the Dustnet, and Pyrrha was still crawling into Jaune's bed at night to make sure he hadn't disappeared on her again. Needless to say, both of them had a small axe to grind against Jaune.

Sun was so distracted by Jaune's current discomfort that he didn't notice the snowball leaving Ren's hand. At least, he didn't notice until it hit him square in the face, causing him to sober instantaneously. Consequently, Nora began laughing raucously. She even snorted a few times.

Glaring at Ren through the snow, Sun stooped down, scooped up some more snow, and threw it at Ren, all in one smooth motion. However, Ren saw it coming and he ducked… only to have the snowball hit Nora, who was standing right behind him.

"Oh shit," murmured Sun. Naturally, Nora had ceased laughing.

With feigned calm, she slowly wiped the snow off her face and proceeded to slowly point at Sun. "This. Means. WAR!" Nora snatched Magnhild from off her back, emptied the grenades onto the snow and scooped snow into the now empty holding chamber.

Sun, perplexed by her actions, wondered aloud, "Uh, what're you-"

"FIRE!" interrupted Nora, shooting the snow out of Magnhild at high velocity.

"OH SHIT!" cried Sun as he leapt out of the way.

While Sun was most certainly happy to have avoided the speeding white ball of death, Jaune and Pyrrha, who were standing behind him, were far from pleased to be hit by the cylindrical block of snow.

Why was Pyrrha so close to Jaune? Well, she felt a little guilty for putting that first handful of snow into Jaune's coat, and was therefore helping him get the snow out.

As is, the snow-block knocked them down into a snow bank on the side of the path. "COLD!" screamed Jaune, clawing his way out of the snow bank. He glared at Ren and Nora, still unaware that Pyrrha was involved in this impromptu snowball fight. "That's it… EAT SNOW!"

And thus started one of the craziest snow fights in the history of Beacon.

 **XXXXX**

"Hey Blake, do you think they know we're still here?" queried Weiss. She and Blake had been walking ahead of the group, so they hadn't been dragged into everyone's shenanigans.

When they heard the commotion, they turned around and watched the ensuing chaos unfold. "Maybe. I think they know not to drag you into this fight, because you would have an unfair advantage. It's why I'm standing so close to you: I really don't feel like getting covered in snow."

Eventually, the snowball fight was brought to an end when somebody "accidentally" pegged the Schnee heiress with a snowball to the face. A simple use of Dust and a few well coordinated glyphs, and all five snowball combatants where safely trapped in a giant snowman. Ren and Nora where each in a position of one of the arms. Pyrrha's arms jutted out where the eyes would be and her head poked out as the snowman's nose. Underneath Pyrrha, Sun was partially out of the snow, forming the snowman's mouth, and Jaune… well, Jaune was buried upside down in the top of the snowman's head, like a giant hat. His legs flailed in the air in a vain attempt to help dig himself out.

After assessing her work, Weiss nodded in pleasure at her magnificent sculpture. "Perfect," she whispered, and walked off, Blake trailing behind her, as both girls tried their hardest not to fall on the side of the path and laugh until they cried and their tear ducts froze over.

Jaune was freaking out. While there was a little bit of wiggle room, it was still a tight space and Jaune was feeling more than a little claustrophobic. Panicking, Jaune reached into his coat and grabbed one of his Blackhawks. Not able to tell where anything was in the dark, Jaune placed the barrel of the gun against the inside of the snowman's head and fired off one round, blowing a giant hole in the snowman's head.

With the hole in the side of the snowman's head, Jaune breathed a sigh of relief as sunlight filtered in. "Um, Jaune, I can understand claustrophobia, but was that really necessary?"

Lifting his head, Jaune looked out the hole to see Ren plastered from torso to head with snow. The only way Jaune could tell it was Ren was the tone of voice and the magenta eyes peeking out from the snow. One of Ren's arms came up and wiped the snow from his face, and well… Ren did _not_ look pleased. In fact, he looked cold, uncomfortable, and to be honest, very angry.

Cringing, Jaune said, "Sorry buddy."

"Guys! Where are you going! I got a flight in less then half-an-hour! Weiss, let me out of this thing!" called Sun, who was trying to pull his remaining arm and leg out of the crescent shaped hole he was stuck in. As Blake and Weiss turned around to help their friends out of "Weiss' Magnificent Snowman", Weiss let out a small giggle, followed by a couple chuckles from Blake. These small acts of laughter opened the floodgates, and soon enough Weiss and Blake had fallen on the road, laughing so loudly that they could probably be heard all the way back at the pancake house. All the while, the occupants of the snowman flailed around, trying to dig themselves out of Weiss' Magnificent Snowman.

All, that is, except Jaune, who just hung there, limp and defeated. "Dammit, this is why I hate winter…"

 **XXXXX**

"Yay! Freedom!" cried Nora, dancing around happily in front of Beacon's main gate.

"Yeah. Good thing too," Sun said, talking around the spare pancake he stole from lunch. "I gotta find my Bullhead."

"When are you getting back with your team?" asked Blake.

Sun took a moment to finish his pancake before answering. "I should be back with the guys in about a week."

Weiss stepped forward, worry creasing her brow. "Speaking of, do you know if Neptune is doing any better?"

A few months ago, Vacuo had been attacked by a group of Grimm; a group that dwarfed those in number that attacked Vale in what is now known as 'The Breach.' However, unlike in Vale, Vacuo has suffered heavy casualties. Half the citizen population is either missing or presumed dead, and many students and hunters associated with Shade Academy were either dead or heavily injured. Also, those tasked with perimeter defense are gone; some missing, but the corpses of most of the defensemen were found and returned to their families. However, because of this, no one has been able to figure out just how the Grimm were able to invade Vacuo.

Neptune and Sun, both originally residents of Vacuo, were there visiting their families when the attack occurred. Scarlet and Sage, hearing of the attack, travelled from Mistral to Vacuo to help their teammates. Thanks to their assistance, Sun had been able to help his family escape Vacuo and get into Vale. However, when the three of them went to go help Neptune, they found him heavily injured in his home, and his family missing. After securing Neptune in the nearest functional hospital, Sun left to help his family get accustomed to Vale, as well as help his team transfer their studies from Haven Academy to Beacon Academy. Meanwhile, Sage and Scarlet promised Sun they would stay behind and help with the restoration of Vacuo, as well as to keep an eye on Neptune.

Sun smiled at Weiss, her concern for his best friend warming him and giving him hope that Neptune might have something good to look forward to in the near future. Oum knows, the poor guy needed it. "Yeah, I talked to Scarlet last night. Seems like Neptune's been on his feet for about a week and still going strong. Probably gonna give him a few more days of therapy before we bring him here."

Weiss let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad to hear that his recovery is coming along so well."

A pang of guilt hit Sun; he couldn't bring himself to tell her, or any of them for that matter, what else Scarlet had told him: how torn up Neptune was over his family. Hell, he couldn't even bring himself to tell them that Neptune's family might very well be dead. He couldn't even believe it himself; Mr. and Ms. Vasilias had been like a second pair of parents to Sun. And little Tiber. Sun had to stop himself from wincing at a memory of him and Neptune teaching his younger brother his first swearword.

"Um, yeah, I'm sure he'd be glad to see you too." Sun's demeanor changing from cheery to slightly morose. "Sorry guys, but I gotta get going. See you all in a week." And with that, he raced off to the cliffs of Beacon, where the helipads and Bullheads where situated.

Blake watched Sun run off, while Weiss was lost in her own thoughts. "Hmm, did he seem… upset?" she queried, her own face beginning to show concern.

"He's probably just worried about missing his flight. He has less then ten minutes before it leaves and this _is_ a rather large compound," replied Ren.

Jaune was standing off to the side, simply observing everything, not really paying attention, glad that he was back. Beside him stood Pyrrha, who was just happy to be near her partner.

But of course, something, or (more appropriately) someone, had to break the tranquil atmosphere. "Ooooh Ren! Can you make us more pancakes?"

 **XX The Day Before XX**

Blaze was staring at security footage that Torchwick had "acquired" from Junior's club. It was footage of the night the Phantom Nevermore stole the Crimson Heart. Mercury, Emerald, Torchwick, and Neo had by this point already given him their accounts regarding Jaune Arc and the avian thief. Also, Cinder had given him case files of what they could scrounge up on both targets.

While Jaune's folder was regular sized, containing everything regarding his civilian life, as well as his studies at Beacon, it was missing approximately a year's worth of information. Specifically last year, where he apparently fell off the grid, only to return to Beacon, along with another man who, for all intents and purposes, has no viable civilian records for the last 20 odd years: Thaddeus Arc. In fact, all Cinder and Emerald had been able to dig up about Thaddeus was that at 17 years old his family had kicked him out. The following year is composed of a list of petty crimes, such as pickpocketing and loitering. Then he just vanishes. As for information regarding the subsequent years, Emerald was able to find a few tax records and what she believed might possibly have been a few aliases, but nothing concrete overall. Blaze couldn't quite put his finger on it, but for some reason, the fact that Jaune had more then likely lived with his uncle for the last year set his teeth on edge. For all he knew, Thaddeus was just a smart man that had lived a tough life and wanted to stay off the grid. Or, he could be an even bigger psychopath than Blaze.

As for the Phantom Nevermore, there was almost less to tell about him than Thaddeus Arc. Young. Male. About 6'1", if he had measured correctly, given the quality of the video feed. Charismatic, probably trained to talk his way into or out of whatever situation he found himself in. Intelligent, able to plan in advance or improvise on the fly. And thanks to the video feed and Mercury's testimony, well-trained and highly dangerous, even if it was apparent that the thief had no intention of killing anyone. Not to mention, he was a bit _too_ cocky for his own well-being. As for his MO, he always seemed to steal a Pure Dust Crystal on nights with full moons.

Also, it seemed that he might have an accomplice. Mercury had already explained to him how the thief's Semblance, Kinetic Distribution, worked. Meaning that someone else, probably whoever was helping him set up these heists, had to have been controlling the shadow that tossed Mercury and spirited the thief to safety. Blaze watched and rewatched the security footage from the various cameras, trying to get a good look at the room, to see if there was anyone else in the club other than the combatants when the shadow moved. Sadly, he could only see the Beacon students, Junior and his gang, and Cinder's cronies, along with the Phantom Nevermore himself. Whoever this accomplice is, was either hiding in the building where the cameras couldn't see him, or he had been outside the building altogether, watching from one of the ceiling windows. _Meaning that this shadow Semblance can be used over long distances. Maybe the user has to be looking at the shadow if it's not his or her own?_

In regards to any past history of this criminal, there was nothing prior to a few months ago, other than another thief who went by the title the Shadow Ursa. However, that was almost 30 years ago. It would be physically impossible for this current thief to be one-and-the-same with the older one. It _was_ __possible that this could be a copycat; someone who might have found old footage or heard stories of the Shadow Ursa's heists and felt inspired to take up a similar mantle. However, there was just as much chance that this thief and the Shadow Ursa are two completely unrelated cases.

From all that he'd gathered regarding the two targets, Blaze felt safe in proceeding with his original plan: hunt down and kill the Phantom Nevermore and anyone who might be helping him, then turn his attention on Jaune. He still wanted to avoid killing an Arc if possible (he _really_ did not want that kind of heat on him; not after what happened with his last high-profile target), but he knew that Cinder expected results, and she expected them soon.

 _The best way to go about this would be to find a way to track this guy to wherever he's hiding, wait for him and his partner or partners to get together, and then kill them all in one go. I could get a yellow Dust tracker easily enough, but what could I use it on? The only things this guy has stolen so far are…_ A huge grin spread across Blaze's face as he looked back to the video feed (he had placed it on a continual loop) and watched as the fake Crimson Heart exploded in Junior's face. "Thanks for the inspiration. Alright, time to tell Cinder what I need to get everything moving…" he grumbled to himself as he got up from his chair and left the video room.

 **XXXXX**

"Hi, I need some Lien." All heads turned to the entrance of what Cinder called "The Common Room." It was a large room with a vaulted ceiling, and lavishly furnished as to Cinder's tastes: a large diamond chandelier, comfy couches and chairs, a fireplace large enough to roast an Ursa in, and pillows. Pillows everywhere. With tassels. _Ok, seriously? Cinder, what is your deal with tasseled pillows? They're fucking everywhere. Wait… is that a pillow on the chandelier? How the hell did you get that up there?_

Sitting in the Common Room was Cinder, Neo (disguised as Mint), Emerald (Mercury had finally taken the hint and decided to lie down for the next few days so that his body and Aura could properly heal), and a representative of the White Fang. The man was young, with spiked-back crimson hair. He wore black pants and a black coat with a design of red and white roses on the left shoulder. Underneath the jacket he wore a crimson shirt that matched his hair color, and a small Grimm mask that succeeded in only covering his eyes.

"I am sorry for the interruption, but this will take but a moment," spoke Cinder to her guest. Turning around in her chair, she gave Blaze her undivided attention. "Now, what is this about requiring Lien? And make it quick; I currently have a guest that I need to attend to."

"I have an idea on how to deal with your problem," Blaze wasn't sure how much Cinder's contact in the White Fang knew about their issue, so he figured it would be best to be vague in front of him, "-but I'm gonna need to go into town and buy some supplies."

Cinder sat there for a few moments, contemplating the situation before agreeing. "Very well. Emerald, go get Blaze some Lien." Blaze nodded his head in thanks, but before he could leave the room, Cinder called out to him. "Oh, and Blaze," he turned around, "I _do_ hope that you intend to share the details of your little… _idea_ with the rest of us."

Blaze had to stop himself from rolling his eyes; his sister wasn't a fan of disrespect, and he wasn't in a good enough physical condition to go toe-to-toe with her. Not unless he felt like choking on his own blood. "Don't worry. Once I know that I can acquire the necessary items, I'll be sure to tell you," and walked out of the room before Emerald. Just as he was on the threshold of the room, he called over his shoulder, "And make sure your buddy from the White Fang is still here. We're probably gonna need his help setting this thing up."

As Emerald passed Cinder, she grabbed Emerald's arm and gently pulled her down, so that Emerald's ears where level with Cinder's lips. "When he goes into town, try and keep an eye on him. I want to know just _whom_ he is going to for supplies. Understand?" Emerald nodded her head in understanding, and then followed Blaze out of the room.

The young Faunus had remained quite throughout the exchange, simply watching and evaluating the situation. Finally, he turned his head back to Cinder, who was already looking at him, seated languidly in her own seat, and asked her, "Is that who I think it is?"

 **XXXXX**

"Here's 10 000 Lien. Think you can handle it?" asked Emerald in a snarky tone. She'd been in a foul mood since they'd left Cinder's hideout in Patch. She had taken them into Vale, so that they can get some hard cash from Torchwick. Naturally, he hadn't been too happy about the situation, but he knew better than to say anything, especially to Blaze. While Cinder might have been the stronger fighter (at least for now), she needed him. Blaze, on the other hand, did not.

In as dry a tone as he could muster, Blaze replied, "Yeah, I think I can manage holding onto this much. I mean, thank Oum that we have electronic transfers on our Scrolls," he demonstrated his point by holding up the new Scroll that Cinder had given to him earlier in the day. "Now, if we were talking about plastic Lien, then I _think_ we might have a problem of it falling out of the holes in my shabby underwear," Blaze continued, attempting to out-grouch Emerald.

She just rolled her eyes and said, "Whatever, smart-ass. Oum, talk about a headache. I'm going to lie down." That last part she called out to Torchwick as she went to lie down in his back room.

Torchwick simply looked at Blaze, mouth slightly agape, before saying, "I genuinely cannot believe that you're allowing that little chit to talk to you like that. The Blaze I remember would have ripped her tongue out of her mouth and force feed it to her."

Without looking up from his Scroll, Blaze replied, "Roman, I was in solitary confinement for _four years_ , and somehow I'm still sane. Let's just say that I've gained a smidgen of patience."

Torchwick laughed before saying, "No offense kid, but I don't think you where ever sane to begin with."

At that, Blaze _did_ look up from his Scroll, snapped it close, and placed it in his pocket before saying, "Roman, don't push your luck with me. I said I now have a _little_ bit of patience, and Emerald just blew right through it." Torchwick just laughed and apologized, while internally wondering why it was that everyone felt the urge to act short with him.

"Alright, I gotta get going. Roman, can you make sure that Emerald doesn't leave without me?"

Torchwick lit one of his cigars. Taking a long drag, he answered, "I can try, but trust me when I say that you're not the only one that girl likes to aggravate."

Blaze grunted an acknowledgement and muttered, "I'll keep that in mind." In a louder voice, he called out, "Thanks Roman," as he left Roman's place of business in the basement of The Cuppa'.

Torchwick was flabbergasted. _Damn. Solitary confinement did more than teach the kid patience. If I didn't know better, I'd swear he seems almost… Civil? Sociable, even?_ He shook his head in consternation. _Not my business. Just think of the Lien… And make sure the little truant stays here._ What Torchwick didn't know was that his backroom was currently empty of annoying, green-haired pickpockets.

 _ **A/N: Hope you all enjoyed! Please leave a review if you have anything to add. This my first story, so please no flames. Remember, don't be a hater, but be a CONGRATULATOR! (Yes, I know that pun is lame, but I'm riding it straight to hell.) Hope you all have a good one!**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**And here is part 2, as promised. Hope you all enjoy (I have nothing witty or funny to say)! I do not own RWBY, it belongs to Monty Oum, may he RIP, and Rooster Teeth.**_

 **Chapter 2: The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same (Part 2)**

"Dammit. Thanks for nothing Roman," grumbled Blaze. When he was exiting The Cuppa', he had heard a window sliding open, and a flash of green in the alleyway between buildings, moving upwards towards the rooftops. _She's fast, I'll give her that much. If I hadn't heard the window opening, I probably wouldn't have noticed her. Cinder must want to know if Frank's still alive. Guess I gotta ditch the little green monster._

He knew he was about a half-hour walk from the entertainment district, and he knew just the place to give Emerald the slip. On his way there, he picked the pockets of a few pedestrians so that he would have some quick, on-hand cash.

Once he arrived at the entertainment district, he started looking for a strip joint called Sherri's Beautiful Girls. As he remembered, there was a rather lengthy line up in front of the place. Of course, if Mark was still working the door, all he would need was a simple bribe to get in. And luckily enough, he still was. Tall and jacked, with sun-blond hair, the bouncer was hard to miss, especially when you were looking for him.

As Blaze approached him, Mark raised his hand. "Sorry kid; back of the line." Blaze didn't even bother to acknowledge what Mark said; he just flashed him the Lien, stuffed it in his jean pocket, and walked right through the door. Mark was so shocked that it took him a moment before he turned around and said "Hey! Do I know you?"

Blaze looked over his shoulder, gave Mark a once over as if to get a better look at him, and said, "Nope. Never seen you before."

"Oh," muttered Mark, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry, must have mistook you for this kid I used to know… Uh, anyway, enjoy yourself in there!" Blazed turned around and said, "Thanks." _Good ol' Mark, still twelve shy of a dozen._

Once he was in, Blaze made a beeline straight for the bar, and asked if Beatrice was around. "One sec, sug. I'll go get her for you," said the current bartender, who was dressed as scantily as all the other strippers in the joint. Blaze did his best not stare at any of them; last thing he needed to do was to offend Beatrice and cause a scene.

"Well, well, the dead have risen, huh? I almost didn't recognize you, cher." Blaze swiveled on his barstool to look at Beatrice. Black hair, dark eyes, and pale skin, she was dressed up in her usual manner of gypsy woman. Something that always amused him (even if he did his best not to show it), considering that she was the current proprietor of this "fine" establishment. Her mother, Sherri, had given her and her husband the place after she had grown tired of running it. Of course, by that point Beatrice had pretty much already been running it. And while she didn't like it, she had a fine head for business and saw an opportunity with her mother's old strip club.

Which was one of the reasons why Blaze was always so polite and respectful around Beatrice: when people tried to have a conversation with her but couldn't pry their eyes off her girls, she tended to get a little testy. In fact, whenever he gave into the temptation of looking at one of the strippers, if only to be awed at just how _flexible_ they were, she wouldn't even dignify him with so much as a look. Not to mention, she was also one of the few people who could make him laugh, back before Cinder locked him up. That alone made her worth his respect.

"Hi Beatrice, long time no see. You're looking as good as ever." She walked up to him smiling, mouth open as if to make a quick quip. But when she got close to him, her whole demeanor turned around. Frowning, she pulled on the sleeve of his shirt and said, "What happened to you, cher? I haven't seen you for almost half a decade, and look at you. Your all skin and bones." Looking him square in the eye, she repeated her question.

Gently prying her hand off his sleeve, he firmly held it between both of his and said, "I'm fine, just trying out a new diet. As for why you haven't seen me, I got into a bit of trouble with my folks." Concern creased Beatrice's brow as he leaned in, as if to impart on her a secret. "They found out I like to hang out at strip clubs."

She pulled back, annoyed, and growled, "Not funny boy. I may not be your mama, but don't think I won't put you over my knee." Blaze laughed good-naturedly; he knew that unlike most people, Beatrice didn't say that with the intent to hurt, but to let you know that she was genuinely worried for you.

"Speaking of families, how are your husband and daughter doing? Little Teena must be what, eleven now? Twelve?"

The change of topic caused an almost euphoric look of happiness to come across Beatrice's face. If there was one thing he knew about this woman, it was that she loved her family. More importantly, she loved to gush about her family. "Oh, you would not believe the drawing she made yesterday in Art class. Why, her teacher said…" On-and-on she went, about how her little girl was doing in school, and about how her husband had broken off from his old law firm a few years ago to start a new one.

Honestly, Blaze could have sat there and listened to her talk about her family all day. Strip club aside, they seemed so… normal. So happy. And as much as he hated to admit it, it brought a pang of jealousy to his blackened heart. He had never had a familial bond with anyone, not even Cinder. When he thought that she cared, that she viewed him as family, she was only using him to further her own ambitions. Even now, their relationship was one of thinly veiled distain and a contest of one-upping each other.

As much as he hated to, he knew he had to get down to business. As she was talking about Teena's newest friend, Blaze cleared his throat. "I'm sorry to interrupt you Beatrice, but I'm not really here for a social call. I was wondering if I could use room #3."

This got her attention. Mulling it over for a moment, she decides to grant him his request. "All right cher, but you remember: don't do anything I wouldn't." Blaze couldn't stop himself from laughing. Beyond running this strip joint, Beatrice and her family were about as clean cut as they get. In fact, she had no idea as to who he is or what he'd done and planned to continue doing.

She just knew him as a kid in a bad familial situation, who liked to explore the sewers and that he liked to use her club as a focal point to map out his expeditions. "Considering you run a den of inequity, that leaves me with plenty of options, don't you think?"

Shaking her head, she laughed and said, "Oh, you're a bad one, boo."

As Blaze got up to leave for the back of the club, Beatrice pulled him into a quick hug. "Remember, if you ever need a place to stay, all you have to do is ask, ok cher?" Stunned, all Blaze could do was nod his head. Smiling down at him, she let him go and said, "Alright. You run along now. And be careful while you're down there."

"Um, yeah, thanks," he mumbled, still a bit befuddled. While Beatrice had always been kind to him, she had never treated him like he mattered. Like he might be family. Just the thought that someone could see him in that light almost caused his brain to shut down. As for her hug, it brought to memory the only friend he'd ever really had. _Don't go there, just keep walking. Remember why you're here: you gotta ditch Emerald so that you can talk to Frank._

Next thing he knew, he was at the back of the club in front of room #3. Making sure no one else was in there, he flipped the sign to "OCCUPIED" and walked in. In the center of the room was a large table with a pole on it. Covering the table was a bedazzled cloth that drooped all the way to the floor. Quickly, he crawled under the table. Hidden underneath the table was a trapdoor leading to the sewer system of Vale. Making sure that nothing was out of place before he left, he shimmied down the ladder and into the sewers below. Luckily, Beatrice's club was past the sewage treatment plant, so the water here was clean, and the sewers themselves didn't smell too bad.

As he began to head for the nearest exit, thoughts of what Beatrice said ran through his head. _"Remember, if you ever need a place to stay, all you have to do is ask, ok cher?"_ Growing frustrated, and in an effort to clear his head, he punched the side of the tunnel, breaking brick and mortar, and chipping the back of his knuckles. Luckily, the pain is enough to clear the fog from his head. "I don't need a family," he grumbled. Sighing, he once again started to walk towards the nearest exit. _Alright, time to find Frank._

 **XXXXX**

Almost an hour later, Blaze found himself outside Jerry's Mech Shop. He walked into the front room, where at a small desk sat an even smaller woman. "Good afternoon, ma'am. I'm looking for someone who works here. His name is Porky." The petite old lady looked up at him, before hitting a button on an intercom in front of her and saying into the mic, "Porky, you got requested from a client. Come out to the front."

A few moments later walked in a man only a little older than Blaze. Dressed in traditional mechanic garb of greasy blue coveralls, he was cleaning oil off his hands with an old rag. He had sand colored hair that was pulled back from his face in a short ponytail, held together in the back by some old string. Covering his eyes were a pair of thick aviator goggles that, like the rest of his ensemble, was covered in a fair amount of oil and grime.

As he looked up from cleaning his hands, Blaze could have sworn that he saw a look of shock come over his face. Naturally, it was gone so fast that Blaze might have thought he had imagined it. After all, Frank Ponzi was a pro.

"Why, hello there Peter! It's good to see you. How's the Free-Wing?" exclaimed Frank. He raised his now clean hand.

Stepping forward, Blaze took his hand and said, "She hovers as smoothly as ever, thanks to you, but I came here to ask you about something else."

Frank nodded his head in understanding. "Of course, of course. I hope you don't mind talking to me in the garage. I'm sorry, but I'm currently working on something for another client."

Blaze just waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, I understand," and proceeded to follow Frank through the door and into the garage.

It was rather large, with an assortment of electrical, gas/heat, and Dust related tools. Interspersed throughout the room where projects that the other mechanics where working on. Some worked on a Bullhead, a few more on a hopper (it looked like an older model Free-Wing), and almost half of them were working on… "A fridge? Do I even want to ask?"

Frank just shrugged. "Almost the entire circuitry is shot. It's an older model that's gone out of business; it uses electricity instead of low grade Cerulean Dust like most modern fridges. I'm not sure if the customer is a collector, if he's attached to it, or if he's just nuts. But apparently he paid Jerry good money to fix it up, so… yeah." Frank's voice was so dry that you could have used it to dry out the Mistral marshes.

Instead of walking over to any of the occupied projects, Frank lead Blaze to a corner where an older model Atlasian Knight lay on a workbench in pieces. The bench was far from all the other mechanics, and the sound from all the tinkering and hammering easily drowned out most other noise.

After he had led them to the workbench, Frank turned to look at Blaze for a few seconds, and then he threw back his head and laughed so hard that Blaze had to look over his shoulder to see if any of the other mechanics were paying attention. Luckily, they were to absorbed in their work to pay attention to the new noise that added to the existing cacophony. Finally calming down, Frank took his goggles off his face and wiped the tears from his eyes, leaving black trails of grease under them. "You lucky sonuvabitch. It's been what, four years? I was starting to wonder if you where dead."

Blaze frowned. "Why would you think I was dead? For all you know, I could have been in a early retirement."

Frank just continued to smile at him and said, "Yeah, bullshit. You forget: _I know your sister_ ," his smile slipped off his face, to be replaced with a look of cold anger. "I'm gonna go off on a limb and guess that you did something to piss her off and she finally decided that you're more effort than you're worth, and decided to get rid of you."

Sometimes, Blaze hated just how sharp Frank could be. He didn't like people getting a good read on him. Cinder hated it even more. When Cinder had taken over the mafia families of Atlas, she hadn't been too thrilled to have a subordinate who could sniff out her plans. She liked it even less when she found out that that subordinates kid was even sharper than his father.

Needless to say, she ordered Blaze to "dispose" of the Ponzi family. While he had taken care of Frank's parents, he spared Frank. In fact, Blaze even helped Frank go into hiding. Blaze wouldn't admit it, and he knew Frank wouldn't appreciate hearing it said aloud, but for some reason, Blaze had associated strongly with Frank. Despite what had happened, Frank didn't begrudge Blaze what he had done; Frank's parents could hardly be described as such. In the end, they had formed a strange relationship; while not exactly friends, there was mutual respect and understanding.

Shortly after Frank went into hiding, he began running his own underground operations, "supplying" those who knew how to find him. Of course, his very first (and longest-lasting) customer was Blaze. Naturally, that wasn't Frank's only job. He enjoyed moonlighting under multiple different jobs and careers. His favorites were mechanic, garbage man, and believe-it-or-not, chef. To top it all off, he had to be one of the best hackers that Blaze had met, or at least the best that he hadn't been hired to kill.

"You're close, but no cigar. I had a bit of a 'temper tantrum,'" Blaze explained, using air quotes, "so she figured that I needed a four-year timeout to cool off. As is, I need some stuff to help me with a job."

Frank's green eyes bore into Blaze's skull. "She locked you up for four years, and now she expects you to do a job for her? Boy, just how whipped-" he stopped himself midsentence and gave Blaze a funny look. "What does she have on you?"

A blanket of faux innocence fell across Blaze's face. "What are you talking about? No one has anything on me. Now, can we get back to the issue of my supplies?"

Frank growled, irritated that Blaze was blowing off his concern, but relented. "Fine, whatever. But you listen to me; you can't trust her. I know that. I know _you_ know that. Whatever she promised you, she won't fulfill. Whatever she's holding over your head, she won't just let it go."

Blaze stared at Frank. "Now that you got that off your chest, I'd like to talk about my supplies."

Frank let out a breath in disgust. "Fine. Do what you want. But when you lie dying in some hellhole because the sadistic bitch set you up, don't forget that I tried to warn you." Frank sighed, raking his hand down his face. "So, what do you need?"

Blaze took a short list out from his interior coat pocket and passed it to Frank. Frank perused the list, stroking his chin with his other hand. "I can you get you the Dust trackers and the transcripts for Beacon with little problem, but you want me to make you a fake Onyx Pinion? I have the supplies to mold a crystal, but I have no idea what it looks like, besides its color." From the same pocket, Blaze took a picture out and passed it to Frank. Frank stared at the picture. "The Onyx Pinion is held in… I wanna say Shade Academy? Security in an academy is supposed to be airtight. How'd you get a picture of it?"

Blaze simply smiled and said, "I have my ways. Besides, you should know better then anyone that there's no such thing as an airtight security system."

Frank rolled his eyes at the ridiculous answer. "Why do I ever ask you questions? Anyway, I can get all this within a week."

"Sorry, but I actually need all this before Sunday," interjected Blaze. Frank was incredulous. "You're screwing with me, right? How do you-" he stopped himself midsentence (this seems to be happening a lot to him today). "You're after that thief, aren't you," Frank stated.

Donning his best poker face, Blaze asked, "Why do you think that's my target?"

Frank gave him a droll look. "Gee, I don't know. Maybe the fact that you want me to make a fake Pure Dust Crystal? Maybe the fact that Sunday night is a full moon, and this Nevermore guy only seems to come out and play on full moons? You wanna throw me a few more hints, just so I can make sure I'm in the right ballpark?" Frank crossed his arms, staring at a slightly abashed Blaze. "Don't treat me like an idiot. You know better."

Blaze sighed. "Look, can you just get me my stuff before Sunday?"

"I can get it all for you by Friday, but your gonna have to come to me to pick it up. You can pay me then."

Blaze let out a breath of relief. "Thanks Frank." Blaze scratched the back of his head. "Listen, Frank. The reason I'm being so… weird about all this is that I don't want you getting directly involved. Cinder is still looking for you. I made sure I wasn't followed, but it's probably for the best that you know as little as possible about all this."

Frank pinched the bridge of his nose in aggravation. "For Oum's sake man, we've been over this: I don't give a fuck if she still wants me dead."

Blaze snorted in derision. "You only say that because you've never been captured and tortured by her. And she _will_ torture you if she ever finds you. She's still pissed that you escaped her. If you know her as well as you think you do, then you know that she doesn't like leaving lose ends."

Frank merely grunted in irritation and said, "Fine, fine. I'll forget your scrawny ass was here as soon as you leave." Blaze decided to let that one slide; he really didn't want to lose his temper with Frank, especially considering how much he needed him.

Clearing his throat, Blaze continued. "That aside, there is something that I would like you to do for the Crystal."

"Oh, and what would that be?"

 **XXXXX**

Emerald was getting royally fed up of waiting. And watching. And doing absolutely _nothing_ productive.

She'd been watching the strip club for _hours_ , switching buildings to watch the strip club from different angles, to see if Blaze will leave and try to ditch her. Currently, she was watching from the roof of a restaurant directly across the street, eating a damn good burger. She nearly choked on said burger as Blaze walked calmly out the front entrance.

 _That son of a bitch, don't tell me he spent the entire day in a strip club? How hard up is he? Oh Oum, how much of the money did he use?_ She didn't even try to hide her irritation when Blaze looked right at her and waved at her to come join him on the street.

Jumping down into an alley, she walked up to him; viciously biting into her burger, wishing it was something more… fresh. "Do you have any idea how long you where in there for? Did you at least get your supplies?"

Blaze just smiled at her frustration and said, "I'll be coming back in a few days to pick up my stuff. And before you ask, yes, I do have an in with the strippers." This time, Emerald did choke on her burger.

 **XXXXX**

"Now that you're back, why don't you explain to us your plan?" asked Cinder. Once again, everyone (minus Mercury) was in the Common Room. Torchwick had taken a ride back with Blake and Emerald, angry with the thief for sneaking out and getting him in trouble with Blaze.

"It's a simple enough plan. Using a fake Pure Dust Crystal, we're gonna lure this thief to one of the White Fang's hideouts. This Sunday is a full moon, which matches up well with his MO. We're gonna want to spread word throughout the White Fang that we have another Pure Dust Crystal. Whoevers been leaking intel will probably do so again. We're gonna want to find them and apprehend them for later use." Turning to the only Faunus in the room, Blaze asks, "Do you think you can get us a abandoned or mostly empty base for us to use?"

The Faunus mulled it over for a moment. "We do have an old storage facility on the Vale-Vacuo border that is relatively unmanned."

"Good," replied Blaze. "We only need enough of your men to make it look like it's used from the outside. I don't want anyone in the building besides me." The main reason he said that was to make sure that no White Fang members were killed during the fight; that could potentially ruin Cinder's alliance with the White Fang, in which case she would more than likely kill _her_ just to spite him.

"And where will you be in the base?" queried Cinder.

"I'll be in the storage room, along with the fake Crystal. I'm gonna need to put on a good show, to make him think that I'm trying to kill him, but he'll have to escape. There will be a tracker in the Crystal, that way we can trace him and his partners to their hideout, and I can kill them all in one go."

Cinder considered Blaze's plan, before agreeing. "Very well, but I should warn you Blaze, that should your plan fail…"

Blaze stared her right in the eyes. "I know, you'll take it out of my hide. Don't forget, I've been working with you for a long time. I know you don't deal well with those who fail you."

She just smiled at him. "I just wanted to make sure that we were clear on that subject."

 **XXXXX**

After Blaze's meeting to discuss his plan, the only two people left in the Common Room where Cinder and her contact from the White Fang.

Cinder could tell that something was wrong with the young Faunus. "What's the matter, Mr. Taurus? Surely you don't have an issue with Blaze's plan?"

Adam had been staring at the floor for a while, his lips pressed together in quiet thought. At Cinder's interruption, he looked up. "Yes, I do have a problem. I remember well the carnage your personal assassin has wrought, even on simple assignments. Any men I have positioned so much as _near_ the warehouse are in danger. I want your guarantee that your Hound will only attack this thief, and not my personnel."

Cinder smiled lazily in response. "I can make no such guarantee. As is, this concern of yours is something that you will have to bring up with Blaze, and I'm sure that we both know him well enough to know what answer he will give you."

Adam let out an angry breath, but knew that there was nothing he could really do in protest. "Fine, but then I want some form of compensation for lending you the warehouse and putting my men in danger."

This caught Cinder's attention. Adam had never bargained with her before. Normally, when she gave him an order, he would fulfill it to the letter. Whenever he had a request for her, she would decide whether or not their work relationship was worth fulfilling his request before either accepting or declining it.

Lifting one delicate eyebrow, Cinder asked, "Interesting. What would you like for this… generous act on your part?"

Releasing another deep breath, Adam couldn't help but feel a little triumphant. _Alright, it worked. I was starting to get worried that she would shut me down as usual._ "I want to give Blaze a new contract for the White Fang."

 **XX Christmas Day XX**

Jaune walked through the halls of Beacon, trying to shake the snow out of his clothes and ignore the damp and cold.

Despite how uncomfortable he felt he had thoroughly enjoyed the day. It'd been a long time since he'd had so much fun. It wasn't like living with uncle Thaddeus had been boring, but all the training and learning had been intense and strenuous, even if it had done wonders for his ego.

Speaking of Thaddeus, Jaune was walking to his quarters in the teacher's wing of the academy. Earlier in the day, Thaddeus had texted him about a potential new heist, involving another Pure Dust Crystal.

He knocked on the door, waiting for Thaddeus's customary "Come on in." As Jaune entered, Thaddeus quietly said, "Close the door." Jaune, surprised by the urgency in his uncle's voice, complied.

"What's wrong?" asked Jaune, worry creasing his brow. Tall and blonde, with a soul patch and thin spectacles, Thaddeus was dressed in a nice light blue suit and black tie. Of course, it wasn't Thaddeus's fashion that was causing him to pace back and forth across his carpet.

Jaune had learned that the "teacher's quarters" were essentially houses. At the moment, they where currently standing in the entryway. To the left would be the kitchen, and to the right would be the downstairs bathroom. If you followed the stairs in front of the entryway door, you could explore the rest of Thaddeus's quarters.

Finally, Thaddeus stopped pacing and turned to Jaune, a look of concern on his face. "It's about this next job. Apparently, the White Fang have found another Pure Dust Crystal: the Onyx Pinion. They are going to move it to a hideout of theirs in the west. Sunday will be our only day to intercept it at one of their warehouse. From there, it's heading to Vacuo, where we won't be able to follow it."

"So?" Jaune asked, not understanding why his uncle was so concerned. "This sounds like any other time I stole from the White Fang."

"That's the thing," replied Thaddeus. "This is just a little _too_ similar to your previous heists. Also," Thaddeus hesitated, but decided to press on, "Also, my informant in the White Fang – the one who has told us about the Pure Dust Crystals – I tried getting in contact with him a little while ago, but was unsuccessful. I'm worried that this might be a setup."

Jaune smiled at the concern his uncle was displaying. While Thaddeus did want Jaune to push himself and do well, he didn't want Jaune to get himself hurt, or worse. "Come on, even if it is a trap, I'll be fine. After all, it's not like anyone in the White Fang knows what my Semblance is."

Thaddeus asked, "Are you sure? I would understand if you want to take a bit more time to train, especially after what happened with Mercury Black." Jaune tried not to grimace, instinctively touching his ribs. Mercury Black had almost caved in his chest. It was only thanks to Thaddeus that he was still alive, and in such good condition.

"Yeah, I wanna do this job. The name 'Phantom Nevermore' is public now. It wouldn't behoove him to turn down a challenge." Jaune couldn't help but smile. While he had kicked his prideful streak (for the most part), he was still quite confident in his capacity for thievery and Thaddeus's teachings.

Thaddeus took a deep breath to calm down. It wasn't like him to worry like this and he knew it. He was still worried after Jaune's encounter with Mercury. It had reminded him too much of his own encounter with Mercury's father, Marcus Black, as well as his subsequent encounters with Raven Branwen. "All right, if you want to do this, I'll continue to help you. All I ask is that you train with me until the heist. Deal?" He raised his hand.

Jaune stepped forward and shook it. "Deal. As is, it wouldn't hurt for me to be ready for anything."

Thaddeus smiled in relief. "That's the spirit. Why don't you head back to your room? You and I are going to be having an early training session tomorrow."

 _ **A/N: Alrighty! All the pieces are getting into place, and hopefully I can get chapter 3 up soon. I've actually written 5 whole chapters so far, so hopefully I can run them past my beta reader soon.**_

 _ **And remember, don't be a hater, but be a CONGRATULATOR! (I wasn't kidding; I'm riding this pun straight to hell.) Hope you all have a good one, and best of luck to anyone who has finals coming up soon! You know who you are, and I'm ONE OF YOU!... Ciao.**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**I don't own RWBY or PN. I just wish I did. Also, and I hope this is a given, but I make no money from this. It's just something I do when I have a second to myself.**_

 _ **A/N: Hi, everybody! Long time no see! God, it has been awhile. Sorry about that, last 6 months have been … stupidly hectic. I really have no better way to describe my absence. Well, that, and the fact that I am horrible when it comes to editing. Seriously, I drag my feet whenever I do it. Anyway, this chapter is broken into three parts. I'm going to try and update one part each week for the next three weeks (hopefully I can stay on top of the editing and midterms).**_

 _ **Also, I'm actually working on another not-so-little little story. For anyone who is curious, I hope to get the first chapter out before the end of October. As my way of saying sorry for being gone for so long, the first chapter of that story is going to be super long! How long, you may ask? PM me if your curious. Anyway, hope you all enjoy!**_

 **Chapt** **er 3: Time For Prep Work (Part 1)**

Blaze sat back against the training room wall and wiped the blood from the side of his mouth. Thanks to the ceiling lights, it looked black on the back of his hand.

"Not bad, little brother, but I dare say that you are not as strong as I remember you to be." Cinder, standing only a few feet away, was dressed in black combat attire, her blades and arrows currently sheathed on her lower back.

Over the last few days, Cinder has been "helping" Blaze train, so that his body could once again be fighting fit. And while he has been making some good progress, he knew that she was right. Four years of inactivity and malnutrition have taken their toll on his health and physical prowess. Cinder and Blaze both know that a week was not enough to get him back to how he was, but it just might be enough to pull off Blaze's plan. _I just need to pull off this performance._ "You don't say," he grumbled.

"Do you have a problem with my criticism?" asked Cinder, eyebrow raised in authoritative anger. Knowing better then to engage her anger, he took a deep breath, pushed himself to his feet and took up his fighting stance.

"Round 152."

XXXXX

"Come on Jaune. That can't be all you've got."

Jaune was exhausted. Gasping for breath, it was all he could do to stay on his feet. Every other day, he would wake up before dawn and meet Thaddeus in the training room, where Thaddeus would proceed to beat the crap out of him with the training swords or in close quarters combat. They'd stay there for most of the day, taking breaks for breakfast and lunch, generally stopping by midafternoon.

Taking a few deep breaths, Jaune replies, "Well, I wouldn't want to disappoint you by saying that, but I think I'm done." It was just a little after noon. Normally, Jaune would still have the energy to go on, but Thaddeus had laid down a few ground rules for today's training, the main ones being that he couldn't use his Semblance or Aura to protect himself. Without the ability to absorb the kinetic energy of Thaddeus' attacks, let alone blocking the strikes with Aura, he was taking one hell of a beating.

Thaddeus lowered his training sword, and looked ready to reprimand Jaune. "You're becoming too reliant on your Semblance. It should be used to cover your weaknesses, not encompass your entire fighting style. You are becoming too used to taking a hit instead of dodging one, something that I'm sure you don't need me to remind you _almost got you killed_ ," said Thaddeus, placing a lot of emphasis on the last four words.

This time, Jaune _did_ cringe at the reminder of his debacle stealing the Crimson Heart. However, he was glad that Thaddeus hadn't specified the situation regarding the nightclub and Mercury Black. Oum knows who could be walking by the training room right now. If Thaddeus had mentioned Mercury and either a member of his team or Team RWBY where within earshot, he would have some uncomfortable explaining to do.

"I need to get you back into the mindset of a nimble fighter, not a tanky bastard. Especially if you want to appear flashy. Now, give me your best shot." Smiling now, the look on Thaddeus' face brokered no argument.

Letting out a tired breath, Jaune replied, "Alright, you evil slave driver."

XXXXX

Blaze wiped the cold water off his face. He'd just finished washing the blood from it.

Cinder had enjoyed beating the shit out of him all week long. He had already counted four broken lower ribs, seven cracked upper ribs, a sprained wrist, two slashes across his chest, a punctured hand and a couple broken toes. And those were just the injuries he had when he woke up this morning. At this point, he was sure that Cinder had given him several dozen concussions. _Can't believe that I'm not brain dead… or in a coma._

Looking up to the mirror, he had to say that he was surprised that he didn't look worse. He had a couple of cuts along his hairline, easily masked by his bangs. His left eye was slightly black and there was a bruise forming on his right cheekbone. Underneath his left eye was a thin scar, but that had been there for years.

All Cinder had to show for their training was a few broken fingernails that she filed into points… like miniature daggers.

Holding his side, he unwrapped his bandages and hobbled into the shower. Thank Oum that his body could heal from almost anything. If only he could heal faster, like people with Aura. Sadly, his Aura didn't work like most others. Needless to say, he would be hobbling for the next two days before his "date" with the Phantom Nevermore.

Ignoring the pain in his… everything, he quickly lathered up and rinsed off. As the last of the sweat and blood of the day was washed off his body, he turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. He grabbed the towel off the rack next to the sink and gingerly dried himself off. He then proceeded to wrap fresh bandages around his wounds and threw on some fresh clothes over top of them. _Thank High Oum for hoodies and cargo pants. Nice 'n baggy and doesn't irritate my wounds._

He walked out of the bathroom, steam trailing into the hallway. He was in a domestic corridor, with bedrooms running along one side of the corridor, and a bathroom opposite each bedroom on the other side of the corridor.

Apparently, Cinder had set it up as an area for "guests" to spend the night. Considering that most of her guests didn't "stay" to see morning, he was the only one currently using this entire corridor of bedrooms and bathrooms. If he hadn't become used to being isolated, he would probably find it to be eerie. As things stood, he found the solitude to be soothing, compared to the abrasiveness of becoming reacquainted with human contact.

Limping down the hall, Blaze navigated the series of corridors and rooms until he found the refitted communal cafeteria. Grabbing a tray, he placed himself at the back of the line. He had yet to have dinner, and he was _starving_. It took more self-control then he cared to admit to not mow down everyone in front of him in line.

By the time he'd grabbed a burger and lasagna he could practically feel his stomach eating through it's own lining. One of the fun rules of Cinder's training was no breaks, and no food or water. You pulled your own weight until she said you could go. One of the main reasons he had never bothered to try and stay in shape while in the Goliath cage was that he didn't receive enough food, and therefore didn't want to expend what little energy he had on exercise. Sadly, that philosophy came back, along with its _very_ ornery friends, to bite him in the ass. His limp can attest to that.

Finding an empty table in the corner of the room, he scarfed down the food, not even leaving a scrap of meat or a speck of tomato sauce.

Sighing in relief, he lifted his head to the sound of footsteps, only to meet the eyes of Mercury Black, who sat himself right across from him. Slowly chewing what little was left of his burger, Blaze stared right back.

They just stared at each other, the mounting tension all but palpable to those at the nearby tables. In fact, it was so uncomfortable that some of Cinder's "hired help" started to move away from the table.

[Ugh, are you two done having the 'whose got the biggest dick' competition? If so, I need to talk to you, Blaze.] "growled" Neo, her parasol draped over her shoulders. She was dressed in her Mint persona and looked pissed as all hell. [I know you're going into town soon, and I need a ride. I need to get settled in at Beacon.]

Straightening his spine, Blaze slowly swallowed the last bite of his burger and turned his head to face Neo. "Hi, Neo. Good to see you too. How's life? How's your kill count? What the hell are you wearing and why on Remnant would I want to do anything to help you in any way, shape, or form?"

This of course got Mercury's attention, who had been too focused on Blaze to notice Neo walking up to their table. _Damn, she's quite. How did Blaze know she was there_? Unbeknownst to Mercury (having passed out while Cinder was making her deal with Blaze), Blaze was one of the few people who could "hear" Neo.

[This is my disguise. I'm going undercover in _Beacon_ , remember? And you should _help me_ because it's a direct order from Cinder. Besides, I saw the photo back in the Goliath cage. If you don't, I'll just find little Miss-Orange-Dress myself and slit her throat from ear-to-ear.] replied Neo, now smirking. That was a mistake.

Blaze could hear the sound of his own blood rushing through his head as he calmly stood up and said, "If you so much as _think_ to make a move against her, I will gut your blonde pretty boy and string him up for all of Vale to see, Arc or no Arc." Stepping into her personal space, Blaze leaned down so that he could whisper into her ear. "And then I'm coming for you. I suggest you take care in planning out your next move. I may have changed, but that doesn't mean that I won't rip your head off with my bare hands and enjoy _every damn second of it_."

 _Holy shit_ , thought Mercury. He had been sitting close enough to hear every word that came out of Blaze's mouth, even when he whispered into Neo's ear. While he personally had no issue killing people (his father had raised him on the belief that his own life came before another's), that didn't mean that he particularly _enjoyed_ killing. It was just a necessary evil. Hell, sometimes he even felt pride after having taken down a powerful opponent. But what Blaze had just said… _Ok, yeah, he's definitely related to Cinder._

Originally, Mercury had come down to the cafeteria to grab some grub, maybe chat up some of the female crooks on Cinder's payroll, but then he noticed Blaze over in the corner. Considering how Blaze had taken both himself and Emerald by surprise, he figured that he would try and scope him out and see if he could learn anything about him. But Blaze interacted with no one if it was avoidable. So, he decided to take a more direct approach. Of course, that got completely blindsided by Neo's unexpected appearance.

As things currently stood, he was shocked when instead of appearing scared or panicked, Neo just patted Blaze on the cheek and smiled. He was even more surprised that Blaze's face was completely deadpan and unresponsive, and not volatile and full of murderous rage like it was a second ago.

[Now _that's_ the Blaze I remember.] said Neo, her telepathic voice sounding sickly sweet. [So, about that ride?]

Once again straightening his spine, Blaze said, "All you had to do was say that Cinder gave the order. Come on, let's go grab some keys from her." And just like that, Blaze and Neo left the cafeteria, leaving Mercury completely flummoxed. _Can he hear Neo? What the hell did she say to piss him off like that?_

XXXXX

"Glad to see you can still walk. Oh, and look at that, your limp is already gone. How are the broken ribs?" Cinder was in the Common Room, lounging on one of the couches. She was dressed in her signature red dress, a glass of wine on the table beside her couch.

Blaze just stared at Cinder, doing all he could to keep his anger from showing. He didn't want to give her the satisfaction of seeing how frustrated he was from their sparring. "You got a hopper I could borrow? I need to go into town and grab my supplies, and apparently cornrows here needs a ride as well."

[Hey! These aren't cornrows! They're pigtails, you jackass!] shrieked Neo.

Blaze rolled his eyes, exasperated with Neo's "chatter". "Whatever, cornrows." Turning his attention back to Cinder. "So, about that hopper?"

"Of course. You can get some keys from the hanger bay," replied Cinder, her orange eyes twinkling with amusement at his irritation at both her and Neo.

Nodding his head, Blaze began to leave the room. "Thanks, sis. Oh, and by the way, don't bother having me tailed again. If you do, I'll express-mail whatever idiot you send after me back to you in teeny-tiny pieces."

Blaze simply heard Cinder laugh as he left the Common Room.

XXXXX

"Alright, here we are. Now… get out." Blaze and Neo where parked outside of Roman's little hideout, The Cuppa'.

[Hmph! Don't you think you should treat a woman nicely?] Neo was in the passenger seat and had her arms crossed. Like Emerald, she had been grumpy throughout the entire ride. It seemed that Blaze had a natural gift for pissing off those of the female persuasion whenever they where in an enclosed space with him. It probably didn't help that Blaze had been incredibly caustic to her.

Blaze looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. "I am polite to woman. But you're not a woman. At best, you're a brat. At worst, you're a little pink monster. Now, get the hell out."

[Oh, whatever. You're no fun.] Neo "grumbled" as she got out of the car.

As she began walking towards Beacon, Blaze couldn't help but notice the light of the setting sun illuminate Neo's hair like a black halo. _Welp, that's freaky. Alright, time to get a move on._

XXXXX

Blaze was sitting at a bus stop across the street from Jerry's Mech Shop, waiting for the employees to head home. Specifically, he was waiting for Frank to leave the premises. Frank didn't like conducting business at a place of work that wasn't his own. He had no problem setting up a deal if his client appeared clean-cut, but he wouldn't risk a trade off in an area where he could be recognized.

Blaze had once again gone to Beatrice's strip club to access the sewers, just in case Cinder was having him followed and he hadn't noticed the tail. He decided just to go straight to room #3, and not bother talking to Beatrice. He didn't want her asking questions about his small limp or the bruises on his face. After crawling around the sewers for almost half-an-hour, he had climbed up a sewer drain about a block away from the auto shop.

Blaze decided to check his cheap watch for the time. It was almost midnight. More likely than not, most of the mechanics would be wrapping up whatever projects they were currently working on to head home for the night.

Sure enough, after looking up from his watch, he began to see mechanics filing out of the building. Some were heading to the parking lot in the back, while others where crossing the street to come join him at the bus stop. That's when he noticed Frank pulling up the rear of the group, talking to another mechanic who was locking up the front door.

After talking to Jerry (at least, Blaze assumed it to be Jerry), Frank started to walk down the sidewalk, heading further into downtown Vale. Groaning slightly as he got up from his spot on the bench, Blaze slowly followed him. He didn't want to spook any of Frank's mechanic buddy's who probably had no idea who Frank really was.

After walking for two blocks, Blaze crosses the street at a red light to stand next to Frank. "Lovely night, isn't?"

Frank gave him a quick glance out of the corner of his eyes before returning them to the red "Do Not Cross" light. "Yeah, nice and crisp. No clouds, so you can see the moon. Gotta say, she's a real beaut tonight."

"Sure is. By the way, it's been a while since we've hung out. Wanna grab a couple of drinks, catch up for old times sake?"

A small smile crossed Franks face. "Yeah, sounds like fun. But first things first. I gotta head back to my apartment and drop off my tools. Hope you don't mind."

Blaze shrugged before replying, "So long as you don't mind me tagging along. I'm bored out of my skull, and could use someone to talk to."

At that, Frank barked out a quick laugh. "Yeah, I don't have a problem with that. Come on, lights finally turned green."

XXXXX

On their way to Frank's apartment, Blaze and Frank talked about what people would assume to be a whole lot of nothing: Frank's work at the mech shop, the weather, politics from a few years ago to recently, new restaurants in downtown Vale, and the new Spruce Willis movie.

While this seemed like a bunch of small talk, it helped catch Blaze up to current key international and political events that he had missed during his incarceration.

Finally arriving at Frank's apartment, Frank pulled out a key chain from one of his pockets and unlocked the door. "Ladies first," said Frank, waving Blaze through the door like a right-and-proper gentleman.

Blaze snorted. "Thanks stud, but don't think your getting lucky. You're too hairy for my tastes. And no offense, you're not pretty or sexy enough to change them."

Placing a hand over his heart, Frank groaned. "Oh, why you gotta hurt me like that, cher?"

Shaking his head, Blaze walked past Frank, all the while trying not to snicker like a child. He would never admit it, but he really had missed Frank.

Frank's apartment was on the second floor of an old apartment complex in downtown Vale, not far from the transit terminal. It was rather plain, despite being the residence of a black market dealer. It was a two-room complex: a bedroom and adjoining bathroom, and a kitchen that was just big enough to double as a living room. The entry hall, painted a calming peach color, led directly into the living room portion of the kitchen.

As Blaze rounded the corner into the kitchen, he was welcomed into the living room with a gun in his face. The hand holding the gun led to an arm clad in a white doctor's coat. Following the coat up to the collar and the subsequent neck and head, a pair of pale green eyes glared from a series of burnt-orange bangs. " _You_ ," she growled.

The doctor was a beautiful woman in her early twenties. With short burnt-orange hair that grazed her shoulders, she had pencil-thin eyebrows and sharp, pale green eyes. She had fragile cheekbones and a dainty nose, like a pixie. Her skin was the color of mocha. Underneath her medical coat was a body shaped like an hourglass. She wore a black turtleneck sweater and jeans. Blaze could see a gold ring encircling the middle finger of the hand pointing the gun in his face. If not for the fact that it wasn't on her ring finger, he would have guessed that it was an engagement or wedding ring.

Blaze simply stared at the doctor, completely ignoring the pistol not two inches from his face, and said, "Good to see you too, Lydia. You mind dropping the gun? I'm sure it's gonna be really hard to have a conversation with you if I put a bullet between your eyes."

"Whoa, whoa! Everybody, calm down! Lydia, put down the gun. And Blaze, _stop threatening my girlfriend!_ " Frank stepped between the two of them and took the gun from Lydia. "Sorry, I forgot to tell you I'm bringing work home tonight."

Lydia glared over Frank's shoulder at Blaze. "That's not the issue. What the hell are you doing here?" The last part of her sentence was aimed at Blaze. Snatching the gun back from Frank, she walked around him to stand toe-to-toe with Blaze, pushing the barrel of the pistol into his chest. "I thought I told you to leave Frank alone. The last thing he needs is to have Cinder coming after him again."

Before Lydia could continue ranting, Blaze snatched the gun from her hand in a smooth manner that left Lydia wondering if Blaze had even touched her or the gun. He then proceeded to eject the clip, pull back the chamber, popping the bullet out of the barrel and catching it out of the air with his free hand. Finally, he flicked the safety on and held the gun and clip out to her. When she didn't reach out for it, he proceeded to drop it all on the floor.

Letting out a long breath, Blaze grumbled, "Seriously? Hasn't Frank told you to not hold a gun pressed against someone? That's the easiest way to be disarmed."

Frank once again placed himself between them. Turning to Lydia, he wrapped his arms around her in a comforting hug and said, "Sweetie, I'm sorry that I brought him here, but I promise you, he's not gonna hurt us. I've known him for almost a decade. He didn't kill me when we first met, so why would he know? Trust me, he won't sell us out to Cinder."

Taking an uneasy breath, Lydia stepped out of Frank's arms and said, "I trust you, but that doesn't mean that I won't worry about you. I'll leave you two alone to conduct your 'business."' Looking over Frank's shoulder once more, she turned a gimlet stare on Blaze. "But if you hurt my Frank, I swear to Oum, there is not a corner of hell that you can hide in that I won't find you, drag you out, and dissect you like a lab experiment. Do I make myself clear?"

Blaze bristled angrily at the dissection comment, but kept himself in check. He knew that Lydia wasn't acting like a bitch just for the sake of being a bitch. Lydia Alistair was a doctor at Vale General Hospital, and to say she was a medical prodigy would be an understatement, having gained her medical license by age 16. She had first met Frank when he had been rushed into her emergency room after one of his deals had gone awry. Shortly after, thanks to the narcotics that he was placed on, she learned just what Frank does for a living, which eventually led to her first meeting with Blaze. To say that it was an uncomfortable memory for all parties involved would be a major understatement.

Schooling his features into a mask of calm, Blaze replied, "Like crystal."

Finally, Lydia turned on her heels and walked out of the living room, past the kitchen, and into her and Frank's bedroom.

Taking a deep breath for composure, Frank turned to Blaze. "I swear by Oum, you must have been born under a cursed star. Like, seriously, is it just me, or do you just piss off anything remotely female within a mile radius of you?"

Blaze chose to ignore this, and instead said, "Neither of you answered me. Since when does Lydia know how to use a gun?"

Frank picked up said gun and it's clip before responding. "We had an incident a few years ago. Since then we've come up with a system: if I don't come home alone, and she hasn't been informed earlier that we'll be having guests, then we ambush them. I hate to say this, but I kinda, sorta, forgot to tell her-"

"You didn't want her to know I was back because she would kick your ass for having any contact with me. That about right?" interrupted Blaze, finishing Frank's sentence for him.

Frank sighed before nodding glumly. "Yeah, I'm in the doghouse tonight. Anyway, you wait here, your stuffs in my room," Frank said, before he followed Lydia's footsteps.

A couple of minutes later, Frank came back with a duffel bag, and a red handprint across his right cheek. Blaze raised a questioning eyebrow at the sight of the handprint, but didn't say anything.

Frank opened the duffel bag to show Blaze the fake Onyx Pinion, a few yellow Dust chips and three handheld tracking monitors, and a stack of papers. "Anything missing?" asked Frank.

"No, everything seems to be here. I just want to make sure you made the specified modifications to the Crystal."

Frank laughed. "Oh yeah, that was a bitch to do, but they're in there, just like you asked."

Blaze zipped up the bag and took it from Frank. "Perfect. What do I owe you?"

Frank whipped out a calculator from one of his many pockets, and after some quick calculations, said, "You owe me 5,183.58 Lien."

"Sweet, I got some money leftover. You do automatic deposits?"

"You know it."

"Awesome."

After transferring the money from his Scroll, Blaze swung the duffel bag over one shoulder and shook Frank's hand with the other. "Thanks for still doing business with me, Frank."

Frank snorted and said, "My pleasure. Your always good for the money and you've never tried to rip me off. Business wise, it would have been a stupid idea on my part to turn you down. Not to mention, I don't want to give you any reason to turn me over to Cinder. In less then a year, I'll have enough money so that me and Lydia can both retire and move out to the countryside. Maybe even start a family. I definitely don't want you and your surly attitude to ruin that dream of my mine."

This time it was Blaze's turn to snort. "Relax, I'd sooner rip your eyeballs out of your skull than turn you over to her."

Frank looked at him like he was insane. "That's not encouraging."

Embarrassed, Blaze cleared his throat. "Sorry. What I'm trying to say is that I'm not gonna turn you over to her, ok? You're the one person I know who won't stab me in the back."

Frank laughed, the look of unease leaving his face. "Whatever, Mr. Psycho. I suggest you get outta here before we end up hugging like a couple of idiots in a chick flick. Besides, I need to find my woman so that she can yell at me for being a greedy idiot. Again." Shaking his head in consternation, Blaze turned to walk out the door.

As he was about to close the door to Frank and Lydia's home, he poked his head around the corner of it and said, "Frank, you take good care of yourself and Lydia," before he finished closing the door, not waiting for Frank to respond.

XXXXX

"Oh no, you're late for curfew."

It took everything Blaze had not to call Cinder a series of colorful words that would surely get him curb stomped. Instead, he dropped the duffel bag on the table in front of her and unzipped it. "I got what I need. When is the White Fang's Bullhead gonna be here?"

Cinder smiled from her place on the plush couch. "They will be here within the hour. In the meantime, I suggest you get reacquainted with some old friends of yours." She clapped her hands. After a couple of seconds, a pair of men dressed as butlers came into the Common Room through a side-door, a large, gray case held between them. Once they reached the table, they placed it next to Blaze's duffel bag, opened the case, bowed and walked out of the room.

Inside the case was a pair of gauntlets, two swords, a couple of handguns, a Grimm mask, and a blood red coat. Underneath the guns were three rows of ammunition. Sighing through his nose, Blaze muttered, "Great. You kept them."

Blaze hated seeing his old "tools." Just looking at them felt like he was putting himself in shackles and having a hot branding iron applied to his skin.

Cinder raised a brow at Blaze's dejected tone. _Could he sound anymore disappointed?_

The gauntlets were black and appeared to be made of layered metal, with horizontal slits going from the fingers to the opening for the arm. The fingers where tipped with small, claw-like appendages coming out of where fingernails would be on someone's hand.

The first sword on the left had a thin blade, about an inch wide, shaped in a wave like design, with the last inch of the blade tapering into a thin point. It had no hilt, and the pommel was made of a black metal with rivets in it, like finger grips. On one side of the pommel, the name _**SINISTRA**_ could be found engraved into the metal. The second sword had a much wider blade, almost a foot in width, and was shaped more traditionally, like a double-edged sword that ended in a point. The name _**DEFENSOREM**_ was itched into both sides of the blade.The hilt was a simple thing, only two pieces of metal that jut out from underneath the sharp edges of the blade, and the handle was the same as the first sword, only with the addition of a small bump at the bottom of the handle. The blades of both swords had the length of short swords, and while the blade of the curved sword was incredibly thin, the blade of the traditional sword was almost three times as thick as a normal blade.

The handguns were of a simple design, with a square barrel with hard-iron sights and a metal grip. Both handguns were semi-automatic. The only difference between them was a strip of paint on both sides of the barrel and the name engraved on top. The gun on the right had twin red stripes, while the one on the left had twin blue stripes. The names etched into the tops of the barrels are _**Burn**_ and _**Frost**_ , respectively. The ammunition in the rows beneath the twin pistols were held in magazines for quick use.

All the weapons were made out of some kind of black metal. Blaze always thought that it made them look as if they had just gone into a fire and come out covered in soot. To his understanding, it was the look Cinder was going for when she had them commissioned for him.

Blaze reached into the case and withdrew the red coat. Underneath it was a pair of shoulder holsters and crimson upper body armor. Blaze already knew that the armor was made of a metallic mesh and a Kevlar coating, to compensate for his strange physique. As for the holsters, they where custom made to hold additional magazines, running up and down his sides, four in total. Two pouches held regular bullets, and the other two pouches held one of two kinds of "special" ammunition that he chooses to use. Given the dangerous nature of these particular rounds, the additional pouches were made to withhold 100 times the pressure of Remnants natural atmosphere, so that the ammunition won't react to any exterior stimuli.

Moving with a natural fluidity that came with years of practice, he put on the body armor and the dual holsters. At the base of the body armor (essentially at the bottom of his spine) were a pair of crossing diagonal sheathes, where he proceeded to sheath Sinistra and Defensorem. He then filled the pouches of his holsters with their specific ammunition, and then holstered his twin pistols. Whipping the coat around his back, he let it flutter in the air as he put it on. It was a long trench coat that went all the way to his ankles, doing an excellent job of hiding his guns and swords. However, there are slits down the side of the coat, near his hips, where he could reach in to grab his swords without any obstruction. Finally, he took out the gauntlets and strapped them on. Once he was done, he flexed his hands. The metal plates of the gauntlets made no noise whatsoever, just like he remembered.

Without warning, he thrust out his left arm, the claws of his gauntlet no more then a quarter of an inch away from Cinder's right eye. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you right now and rid myself of the trouble of dealing with you." His tone was not that of a question, but an order.

Cinder, not even phased, merely looked her brother in the eye and gave him the most poisonous smile that he had ever seen cross her face. "I don't need to give you a reason. You already know that if I die, your dear _friend_ will once again be betrayed by someone she thought she could trust. Now tell me, would you really have her go through that again? Just how heartless are you, little brother?"

After a couple seconds, Blaze let out an angry breath through his nose, then withdrew his claws from Cinder's face. He hated to admit it, but he knew when he was beat. He hated it even more that she had defanged him with nothing but a few words.

Standing up in a fluid motion, she walked up to him, before suddenly grabbing his throat in one of her hands. She slowly started to tighten her grip as a look of genuine rage began to materialize on her face. "Do _not_ forget which one of us is the one in control, Blaze. When I say 'bark,' you bark. When I say 'roll over,' you roll over. When I say 'jump,' you ask 'how high?' Have I made myself clear?"

For the second time that night, Blaze had to stomach his rage, as he gritted out, "Like crystal."

Cinder smirked and said, "Good boy," before releasing her hold on Blaze's throat and returning to her spot on the couch.

Feeling his wind pipe opening up to its regular volume, Blaze took a deep breath, before sullenly asking, "Is there anything else?"

"As a matter of fact, yes." Reaching into the sleeve of her dress, Cinder extracted a syringe filled with blue liquid in the same manner as a magician revealing hidden scarves.

Blaze's eyes widened in surprise. "Is that N.I.?" Cinder nodded her head in the affirmative, before tossing the syringe at him. He caught it in his right hand.

"Your injuries have yet to fully heal. You can't go into battle like that, especially not against someone as dangerous as this thief."

Blaze hesitated before thanking her. He wasn't used to her looking out for him; usually he had to muddle through his problems on his own.

"There is one more thing." Blaze gave her a weary look; he didn't like the tone with which she phrased that, nor did he like the calculating look on her face.

"And that would be what now?" he asked.

Still staring at him, she said, "Adam wants payment for his help. Payment from you."

Blaze's facial features turned to stone. "Who does he want me to kill?"

Cinder "tsked" at him, waving her index finger in his face. "You're jumping the gun, Blaze. You can concern yourself with that later. I merely wanted you to be aware of the price Adam will extract from you, once you are done at his warehouse."

Finally taking his mask out of the case, he placed it in one of his coat pockets, grabbed his duffel bag, and proceeded to leave the hideout to meet up with the White Fang's Bullhead.

 _ **A/N: Hope I wetted your appetites for the rest of the chapter! Will try to get it out Friday next week. In the meantime, hope you all are doing well, and good luck with your midterms for anyone who has them!**_

 _ **And remember, don't be a hater, but be a CONGRATULATOR! (I wasn't kidding; I'm practically married to this horrible pun!)**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**I don't own RWBY or PN.**_

 _ **A/N: Yay, so far I'm on schedule!**_

 _ **Quick shout out to kyrogue23. Thank you so much for your interest in the story! For those curious, yes, I have plans for the Fall siblings, but that isn't for a LONG time. Also, thank you LL for answering a couple of questions I had in regards to the original PN story. It made writing and editing this chapter a lot easier for me.**_

 _ **Anyway, here's the second part of the chapter. Hope you all enjoy!**_

 **Chapt** **er 3: Time For Prep Work (Part 2)**

Blaze watched as the Bullhead landed about 30 feet from him. He was standing outside near the coast of Patch. From the cliff he was standing next to, one could look across the gulf and see the lights of Vale on the far shore of the main continent. Not far from the cliff were some woods, giving the Bullhead cover as it landed.

Once it was on the ground, Blaze walked up to it, whipped open the door and walked right in before the thrusters had completely turned off, letting a member of the White Fang close the door. He proceeded to walk to the pilot's cabin and said, "Get going. And do not stop for _anything_."

Not bothering to wait for a response, he walked to the cargo bay of the Bullhead and hid himself among the crates, hoping to avoid any members of the Bullhead's crew.

From an interior pocket of his coat, he produced the syringe containing the drug Novyi Indigo. To say that N.I. is dangerous is like saying that a Goliath is kinda large – it's a massive understatement. N.I. had originally been produced by the Atlasian military as a hyperactive stimulant. But in the end, the N.I. mixture was simply too potent, and tended to burn out most people within a few hours. It also had a second, very potent side effect: it sped up the reparation of wounds. While some believed this to be a miraculous discovery, this side effect brought about it's own problem. Considering regular cells can only divide a set amount of times in a person's lifespan, overuse or an overdose of the blue Dust compound has led to a 100% mortality rate. The only positive to be found in regards to this drug was that it does not cause a chemical addiction.

Without hesitation, Blaze stabbed the syringe into the unprotected portion of his neck and pushed down on the stopper, injecting himself with N.I.. For a minute he was hyper aware of everything that occurred on the Bullhead: he could hear some of the crew arguing, smell the smoke of burning Dust in the propellers, the clicking of buttons as the pilot made adjustments to their course due to the weather pattern. But soon enough his awareness faded, to be replaced by a huge sense of fatigue. He could feel his body heating up as a side effect of the rapid division of his cells in their attempt to repair the damage done to his body over the last week. Without giving it a second thought, he let the fatigue pull him into a much-needed slumber.

XXXXX

Ruby missed her mother. Ever since Raven had stepped onto the scene and became her surrogate mother - acting like a real mom to Yang - Ruby couldn't help but remember her own. All the cookies she'd baked, all the smiles they'd shared, all the bedtime stories that she would read to Ruby before tucking her into bed. All those memories came rushing back to Ruby with vivid clarity.

However, despite this nostalgic melancholy, Ruby was overjoyed to see the happiness that Raven's presence created for the two most important people in her life: Yang and Taiyang Xiao Long. Ruby knew that, despite the fact that she holds a grudge against Raven for being absent during her childhood, Yang was glad to have a mother that she could turn to in times of need. But that was nothing compared to the shock and happiness that had appeared on Taiyang's face when his daughters had brought Raven home to spend Christmas with them. Ruby giggled to herself at the memory. _Dad looked so shocked and embarrassed… probably didn't help that he ended up dropping the pot of mash potatoes all over the kitchen floor._

While Ruby knew that she would always miss her mother, she strongly believed that Raven Branwen would be a good addition to their family. Yang was beginning to trust Raven, even if she has yet to have fully forgiven Raven, and their dad seemed more then happy to see that Raven was alive and well, even if the possibility of them getting back together was minimal at best.

As Ruby leaned her head against the window of the hopper, she couldn't help but smile. _My family is becoming whole again._

In the front seats sat Raven and Yang. Yang was asking Raven about old missions she had been on, curious about her mother's life. "In your entire career as a huntress, have you ever had to deal with someone like the Phantom Nevermore?"

Raven scowled at the mention of the thief that has caused no end of grief to her daughter's team since he showed up. "Yeah, I've dealt with someone like him before. Shortly before we graduated Beacon, this thief called the Shadow Ursa started making a name for himself. He stole anything from straight up Lien to entire exhibits at the Vale Museum of Natural History. A few years after we graduated, I ended up taking a solo job to try and track this guy down. Your dad and Summer were doing their own assignments, and Qrow was Oum knows where. I took that job shortly after he stole an original DeSouj painting from under the eyes of 30 armed guards who were transporting the painting to a collector in Atlas. Let's just say, I knew that I had my work cut out for me."

Yang looked over at Raven in shock. "Wait a minute, are you telling me that, despite everything, you were able to catch this guy? How!? You have to tell me!" Keeping expectant eyes on her mom, Yang reached an arm around the back of her seat and dug around the cooler next to Ruby for a water bottle.

Raven let out a tired breath of air. "No, I never caught him. I tried to track him down, but he was always gone from the crime scenes before I could arrive. The closest I ever got to capturing him was when he stole Ozpin's favorite coffee mug."

Yang spat out her water, giving the dash of the hopper an impromptu shower. "I'm sorry, did you just say that this Ursa guy _stole Professor Ozpin's coffee mug?_ "

Without taking her eyes off the road, Raven passed Yang a couple of napkins from the glove compartment. "His favorite, yes. You see, I'm not sure if he was being bold or arrogant, but the Shadow Ursa had a habit of broadcasting his heists in advance, giving the local cops riddles that could be found at the scene of his most recent heists. These riddles hinted as to where he'll hit next. Normally, I could only ever figure them out an hour or two before the heist actually occurred."

Yang couldn't hide the look of shock and respect on her face. "What about the riddle he left for Ozpin's coffee mug?"

Raven's smiled as if she was amused, but her eyes narrowed, as if she were recalling a rather bitter memory. "He was a real wise-ass for this particular riddle. It went something like: ' _I can be found in the hand of the seat of power, frothing with the nectar that allows all men to stand strong.'_ "

Yang just stared at Raven, her mouth slightly agape. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, before finally saying, "…Wow. That's a little on the nose, don't you think?"

Raven barked out a bitter laugh. "Oh yeah, it was. He even had the date and time of when he was going to attempt the theft, written down underneath his stupid little riddle. That shit wanted to rub it in our face. Doesn't help that he actually pulled it off."

"So, how did he pull it off?" Yang asked, openly curious about the event. By this point, Ruby had heard enough of the conversation to pique her own interest and listen to Raven's story.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. When we did a follow up to understand how he did it, we couldn't figure out how he got into Beacon, or even how he was able to get Ozpin's coffee mug out of the CCT Clock Tower. Hell, I found him by pure accident as he was exiting the elevator from Ozpin's office. I ended up pursuing him into the sewers. I-"

"Wait, hold up," interrupted Yang. "There's an entrance to the sewers in the school? Like, a door or a manhole or something? Where?"

Raven merely laughed at Yang's befuddled tone of voice. "Oh, nice try sweetie. I'm not telling you where it is. You'll probably just try and sneak out of school after hours, and that's a no-no."

Yang folded her arms over her chest and grumbled for a little bit, before saying, "Continue."

With one last chuckle at her daughter, Raven continued. "Anyway, I didn't know there was an entrance from Beacon into the sewers. This got us to suspect that the Shadow Ursa might have been a former teacher or alumni, but we never had any conclusive evidence. Anyway, I was able to trap him in the sewers, forcing him to fight back. He was good, but I was better. He was losing, and he knew it. That's when the little bastard…" Raven let loose an exasperated breath, and taking one hand off the wheel to pinch and massage the bridge of her nose.

Yang leaned forward expectantly in her seat. Even Ruby pulled herself forward with Yang's seat, so as to better hear the story. "What? That's when he did what?" asked Ruby.

Releasing another exasperated breath, Raven said, "He kissed me." For a second, there was silence. Then another. And another. Finally, the silence in the car was replaced by giggling. Lots of giggling. Next think Raven knew, she could hear snorting, but not from both of her passengers. Just one… the one sitting in the back.

Raven took a quick look to see what was going on. She could easily say that she was not ready for what she saw: Ruby laughing her little ass off, pointing at a red faced Yang who was actually giving Ruby _the_ red-eyed death stare. "Shut up, Ruby! And stop pointing!" yelled Yang.

Blinking to get over her shock, Raven turned her eyes back to the road and asked, "Um, everything ok? Girls?" She was completely ignored as Yang continued to bluster and Ruby continued to laugh.

After a couple of minutes, Ruby was able to calm herself enough to explain herself to Raven. "Yeah, everything's ok. You see, a couple of weeks ago, we ran into the Phantom Nevermore at Junior's club, and-"

"And I ended up getting into a dance off with him! And nothing else!" interrupted Yang, her face a deep shade of crimson.

Ruby smiled as she said in the most innocent voice she could muster, "Yeah, and nothing else. Oh, wait. There was this one thing that happened near the end of the dance. What was it? Yang, do you remember what it was?" Ruby's smile practically split her face in half.

"Ruby, don't you dare-" warned Yang.

"Oh, right! I remember now! Yang tried to kiss him! And he turned her down!" Once again, Ruby was laughing.

Yang's face was officially a deeper shade of red than Ruby's cloak as she turned to face the window in a poor attempt to ignore everything in existence. Feeling a wave of sympathy come over her, Raven patted Yang on the shoulder and said, "There, there, dear. Don't worry, every girl goes through this phase."

"Mom, don't."

"But you see, guys like that are just not worth it."

"Ok mom, seriously, not in the mood."

"Sure, it seems like it'll be fun. You may even get him to stick around for a month or two."

"MOM, SERIOUSLY, STOP."

"But it'll only end in heartbreak and you trying to cave in his skull with a flower vase. That, or you'll end up going to Vacuo for a 'girls weekend' and wake up one day with a wicked hangover and strange tattoos in awkward places. You don't want that, do you dear?"

Yang blinked, the red bleeding from her eyes, and slowly turned to look at her mother. With a look of horror on her face, she said, "For the love of Oum, I was not ready for this." All the while, Ruby was snorting and laughing in the back of the hopper, clutching her sides.

 _Yeah, Raven's going to make a great addition to the family._

XXXXX

 _Blaze opened his eyes, groggy and blurred from sleep, only to be blinded by the overhead light. Squinting, he turned his head to the side, to better figure out where he was._

 _As the white spots disappeared from his vision, he could see that he was in a sterile, clinical, square-box of a room. There was a powerful fluorescent light burning in the ceiling; it was too bright for him to make out what kind of fixture it was._

 _As he tried to push himself up, he felt a tugging on his wrists and ankles. Leaning up as much as he could, he saw that he was strapped down to an operating table. But that wasn't what scared him._

 _What scared him was the gurney next to the table. Instead of carrying a patient, it was covered in a series of surgical instruments. Scalpels, needles, bone saws, clamps, forceps, and other assorted surgeon tools. Next to it, coming out of the ground, was a metal appendage. It curved up from the ground, built like a multi-jointed arm, and in the place of a hand was a huge bed of needles, big enough to encompass his entire body. It was so tall that it almost reached the ceiling. Next to those were an IV drip that ran down into his left forearm and a pressure cuff wrapped around his left bicep that connected to a monitor that displayed his heart rate._

" _Now then, it's time for subject beta's physical and subsequent surgery." Blaze couldn't see the speaker, but he knew that voice. Rough and distinctly male, it belonged to someone that he had buried years ago. As he thought back to a man who looked like him, it felt like he was shrinking, the walls of the room getting further away, and the ceiling light rising higher, like a spotlight, lighting up the operation table and casting shadows on the rest of the room. Slowly, he could hear footsteps approaching him from behind the table._

 _Swallowing hard, Blaze could barely get the name "Lecter," to pass his lips. As Blaze swiveled his head in a vain attempt to see the speaker, he saw the heart monitor jump. 75… 137…._

 _But when the person rounded the table, Blaze could feel his fear triple. Standing before him wasn't Lecter, the man who had made his early childhood a living hell, but the man who had commissioned Lecter to do so: Adrian. He looked just like Blaze remembered: tall, imposing, his face set in a mask of carefully calculated curiosity and disdain. His hair was cut short, with gray speckled in with the brown. The only difference was his attire; he was no longer wearing his military getup, but instead was wearing blue surgeon scrubs. As Blaze's mind registered who was standing over him, the heart monitor started beeping again. 137… 141… 151…._

 _For the next hour, Adrian ran tests on Blaze. From simple things, like checking his heart rate, to more severe tests such as his physical response to an electrical current. He even tested Blaze's heart health by injecting him with a drug that sped up his heart rate to 220 beats per minute. All the while, Adrian kept him strapped down to the table._

 _As time passed, the needles and probes kept coming. Blaze felt as if his body was ripping itself apart. The pain was awful, like every nerve in his body was being set on fire, and then dipped in liquid nitrogen, only to have someone set them on fire again. Once the tearing and ripping was over, Adrian would start putting him back together. But when his body started to rebuild itself, he felt off, like the puzzle pieces of his body didn't quite fit, rubbing up against each other like pieces of rusting metal._

 _Once the tests were done, Blaze lay panting on the table, sweat, blood, and tears dripping down his face. Adrian put down the last of his needles on an empty gurney on his side of the table and asked, "Subject beta, how do you feel?" Blaze slowly turned his head to Adrian, and spit in his face. Or at least he tried to. Blaze was so weak that his spittle landed on the table, only a few inches from his head._

" _Fuck you. Fuck ALL of you. Why won't you just let me die?" Blaze wheezed out between gasps._

" _Oh, and why would I do that?" If Blaze thought he was scared before, he was now at risk of soiling himself. With a shiver crawling down his spine, he turned his head to the side in a poor attempt to see who was behind him._

 _Rounding the table was none other then the little girl from his photo. She was identical in nearly everyway: the orange dress, the brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. But her smile… it was just wrong. Her smile was deranged, maniacal, like her mouth was just too big for her face. The heart monitor continued to beep as his heart rate spiked once more, know reading 174 beats._

 _As she stood there with that unfamiliar smile on her face, the room began to change. The sterile walls became motley shades of brown and orange, covered in racecar posters and stills of actors. On the wall opposite him was a small desk, littered with fashion magazines and paint marks. With a shock, Blaze realized that he was back in her room. But something was wrong. Above the desk was a casement window with white trim. Outside the windows, instead of seeing the sky of Atlas and the Titan mountain range, all he could see were black flames, licking at the glass, but unable to enter._

 _Walking closer to the head of the table, she lowered herself so that she could whisper in his ear. "You destroyed my family and burned my entire WORLD to the ground! You think I would let you die with only this paltry example of pain? Trust me Blaze, by the time I'm through with you, you're going to_ beg _me to let Lecter experiment on you again." As Blaze watched her stand up, her eyes began to change. It started as just her pupils dilating, but soon they ended up encompassing both of her eyes. It was like looking into twin black holes._

 _She finally broke eye contact with Blaze to look at the surgeon. "Father, I believe it's time to begin the surgery, wouldn't you agree?" Dread coursed through Blaze as he heard those words. 'Please, not again…'_

 _Adrian looked down at Blaze, eyes cold and calculating, before responding. "Yes, I believe it is. Bring my tools over to me." Blaze shivered as, once again, Lecter's voice came out of Adrian's mouth._

 _Grabbing the gurney, she pushed it around the table so that it was on the same side as her father. "Now, we can begin," stated Adrian as he grabbed the metal arm-like appendage. Swiveling it over the table, he grabbed a handle on one side of the bed of needles and began to lower it over Blaze._

 _By this point, panic had overtaken Blaze's mind. Hyperventilating, he began pulling at his restraints. They were made of leather strips; they should have been easy for him to pull apart, but for some reason they wouldn't budge. "Oooh,… 198,… 210,… 234,… I wonder just how hard your heart can beat?" queried the demonized little girl._

" _No, no, get that away from me! NO!" yelled Blaze, as the needles where only a few inches from his face._

XXXXX

As the needles pierced his flesh, his eyes, his mouth and gums, all he could feel was an overwhelming sense of pain, like liquid fire was being poured into his veins. All the while, he could hear her cackling.

Blaze gasped and lurched into a kneeling position, dry heaving behind the box he had fallen asleep against. Luckily, the noise he made was drowned out by the landing of the Bullhead, rocking to a halt. He could feel the sweat coating the inside of his armor and clothes. Trying to push his mind away from the nightmare he had, he thought to himself, _I'm gonna need a bath._ As he stood up, he could feel that almost all of his wounds had healed over the course of the flight. In fact, he felt better than he had all week, minus the stench.

He could hear the crew beginning to unload some of the cargo from the Bullhead. Rounding the box he had slept behind, he saw one of the crewmembers bending down to lift one of the smaller boxes. Approaching him, Blaze asked, "Excuse me. Does this base have any facilities where I can clean up?"

The Faunus turned around to answer him, and then jerked away, covering his nose with his hands. "Oh, sweet Oum! What the hell?! Dude, you stink!" cried out the crewmember.

Luckily for him, Blaze had experience reigning in his emotions. Although, it was hard to hide how insulted and ashamed he was over that outburst. Clearing his throat, Blaze said, "Yes, as you see, my armor smells a little. Is there anywhere in the building where I can clean myself up?"

Taking a deep breath through his mouth, the Faunus said, "Sorry dude, but you're out of luck. While we do have bathrooms here, none of them are equipped with showers. There's a river about a half a mile into the woods, just East of here. Normally that's where we go when we need to clean ourselves off."

Giving him a tight-lipped smile, Blaze said, "Thanks," and walked past the rest of the crewmembers and right out of the hangar doors.

They had landed on a helipad on top of the storage facility. It wasn't anything to write home about. It was a squat, square facility, with white and gray walls. In fact, it was so low that it didn't surpass the tree line of the Valian forests, even this close to the desert. Turning to the West, Blaze could actually see the desert. They where on the edge of the forest, and through the sparse trees he could see the desert, and beyond that, the faint lights of the kingdom of Vacuo, illuminating the night. Taking a quick look up, he could see the stars shining in the night sky, along with the waxy face of the broken moon, nearly full. He proceeded to look down the side of the building, having registered that there weren't any lights on the exterior of it. _Then again, this place is manned by Faunus. Guess they wouldn't really need any lights to guard this place_ , mused Blaze.

Taking a step off the side of the building, he let himself drop off the side, shifting his body weight to land almost silently next to one of the guards. As Blaze walked past him, the guard swung his gun around to aim it at Blaze. "You-" The guard never got to finish his sentence as Blaze swiveled to the side, pushed the gun out of the way, and with his other hand, slashed his claws across the Faunus' neck. Slumping to his knees, the guard dropped his gun as he reached for his throat, in a fruitless attempt to stop the bleeding.

"Geez," muttered Blaze. "Are you telling me that the White Fang hire people that don't have their Aura unlocked? Damn, people are stupid." With one hand, Blaze picked up the guard by the neck and pressed down on it with his thumb. A sharp "crack" filled the air as the neck snapped backwards and the guard's arms fell limply to his sides.

Sighing, he slung the body over his shoulders and walked towards the forest. _Well, know I have two reasons to head into the forest. 1) To bury a body, and 2) to find a river to bath in and wash my clothes. Cause Oum knows, I'm not lucky enough for there to be a working shower here._

The truly scary thing is that no one noticed him walk away with the corpse.

A few hours later, Blaze returned to the facility, his clothes and skin damp, but free of blood and sweat. As he walked to the main door on the side of the building, one of Adam's grunts ran up to him. Blaze flexed his left hand, expecting more trouble. So he was pleasantly surprised when, instead of attacking him, the grunt saluted and said, "Hello, sir. You are Blaze Fall, correct? Commander Taurus has informed us that you will be using this facility for the next two days."

Blaze looked at the grunt for a moment, letting the silence grow. _So, they_ were _informed that I was coming. Then why the hell did that guy point a gun in my face? The red coat is kinda hard to mistake._ A second thought popped into his head as he continued to process the grunt's words. _Hold a minute, Commander Taurus…? Oh fuck, are you telling me that was Adam in the Common Room?_

Finally, Blaze said, "Good, where's the storage room?"

"It's in the back of the building, sir," replied the grunt.

"Good," said Blaze, and then walked past the guard, not giving him so much as a glance, unaware that the grunt had a follow up question in regards to a guard that had disappeared. _I need to get set up and get used to this building_ _,_ _distractions be damned._

 _ **A/N: Finally, I'm almost kinda-sorta-not-even done with the first "arc" of this story. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed!**_

 _ **P.S. Congrats to those who got through your first week of the semesters midterms, depending on where you live! Only 3 more months until the semester is over! And remember, don't be a hater, but be a CONGRATULATOR! (Seriously, I can't seem to stop myself!)**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**I don't own RWBY or PN.**_

 _ **A/N: Alright, 100% on track! … For uploading a single chapter … Meh, glass half-full. At least I posted it, right?**_

 _ **For those who are curious, I agree with the Greeks on a simple concept: tragedy breeds adversity, adversity breed's character, and character gives rise to inner strength. While I most certainly know that this concept is overplayed, it's not wrong. Simply put, sometimes we need to have our backs pushed up against a wall to see just what we are capable of. If you are wondering why I'm bringing this up, it's because I want to warn you readers that in this story, I will attempt to push all the characters to their physical and emotional limits. Now, I know this sounds foreboding, and rightly so, but I simply wish to help you understand one of the key concepts of this story: over, under, around, or through, there is no obstacle that we humans are incapable of defeating if we put in enough blood, sweat, and tears into the actions necessary to overcome it. And this chapter is where we start seeing one such struggle for one of our side characters.**_

 _ **For those who are not fans of graphic content, as much as it pains me to suggest it, this might be the point where you might want to jump ship. However, for those who aren't squeamish, I implore you to continue on.**_

 _ **Either way, thank you so much for your support and giving this story the time of day! Hope you all enjoy!**_

 **Chapter 3: Time For Prep Work (Part 3)**

Neptune was pissed. His physical therapy has been going well, _So why the hell can't I get up these stairs?!_ he raged to himself.

Normally, he had physical therapy on the healing ward in Shade Academy, where he was forced to stay. He had badly hurt his left leg, making it difficult to walk up and down stairs. If he wanted to go to any of the other floors, he would have to use the elevator… which is currently broken.

About half-an-hour ago, Sun had gone to do a food run, the cafeteria being two floors up. Seeing as Neptune could barely shuffle his feet on the ground, he didn't have much choice other then to wait for Sun to return.

Ever since Sun came back to Vacuo, Sage and Scarlet have been helping with the restoration project by either hunting down stray Grimm or by helping to rebuild buildings, streets, and other infrastructure. They came back to Shade Academy early in the evening, dirty and tired, and called it an early night, leaving Sun to help Neptune.

Panting and tired himself, Neptune decided to take a break and sit down on the stairs. Over the last few months, his physical therapy has helped to improve his overall health immensely. His left arm was now working fine and his breathing had become much less labored. The only issue that remained was his left leg.

Neptune couldn't help but think about how his friends had found him: battered and broken, bleeding out on the floor of his parents' seaside fishing shack. He'd gone home to see how Tiber was doing at school. _It wasn't supposed to turn out like this_ , he thought to himself. His mind was constantly plagued with the events of the day he and Sun had returned home for a quick family visit; he did his best to keep his mind busy by throwing himself into his therapy, crossword puzzles, Cool Bros articles, or just general conversations with friends and well-wishers. But whenever he was alone, his thoughts inevitably returned to his memories of the Purge and his family.

Tiber, his younger brother, had always looked up to him with something akin to hero worship.

Tiber always wanted to be a hunter, but he was always concerned that he didn't have what it took. So Neptune, wanting to help build Tiber's self-confidence, applied to the Hunter Academies across the four kingdoms. Eventually, Neptune and Sun where admitted to Haven Academy in Mistral. Seeing that Neptune had been admitted to Haven, Tiber re-doubled his efforts in hopes of following in his brother's footsteps. And sure enough, Tiber was eventually accepted into Crossdust Training Academy in Vacuo, not far from Shade Academy.

Neptune was proud of Tiber. Sure, he never really wanted to be a hunter, but if being his little brother's hero is what it took for Tiber to step up, then that was what Neptune would do. Besides, it was probably a good thing that Neptune had chosen to become a hunter, especially considering that their dad wanted him to inherit their fishing shack and become a fisherman. After his little "accident" the first time their dad had taken him fishing, Neptune had become perpetually afraid of water. In particular, the ocean.

As Neptune continued to think of Tiber, his mind invariably brought him back to a few months ago. He'd come home to see how Tiber was doing in combat school, and to see how his parents were faring without him around. What he came home to was a nightmare. Their home was on the West coastline of Vacuo, just outside of the kingdom's borders, but in a relatively safe area. There where so few people who lived in their little seaside community that Grimm tended to ignore them. But, that day was different. The Grimm didn't ignore them; the Grimm _trampled_ them. Marine-life Grimm literally crawled out of the ocean, destroyed their settlement, and continued their rampage onto Vacuo, aided by another large group of Grimm incoming from the North of the desert. If he didn't know that Grimm were incapable of planned attacks he'd swear it was a coordinated tactical strike.

Neptune had only been a couple hundred meters away from the inlet when he saw the Grimm crawl up the coast and onto shore. Fishtailed Hydras, giant cephalopod Grimm, eight-limbed monster crabs, the aquatic cousin to the King Taijitu, and more. They poured out of the sea like a black wave, mowing down Neptune's neighbors and friends. After recovering from his shock, Neptune had slammed on the gas pedal of his Humvee and rushed into town. He fought his way to his families shack on the other side of town, all the while trying to help neighbors escape. There were some former huntsman and military personnel in the inlet, also helping in the evacuation. But it wasn't enough. There were just too many Grimm and not enough fighters to fend them off.

Battered and bruised, when Neptune finally got to his families fishing shack, what he saw almost made him throw up: his home ripped apart, his mother and father, arm-in-arm with each other, dead on the floor, their bodies eviscerated. Their faces were the only recognizable parts of their body. He didn't have long to soak in the reality of his parents death before he heard yelling coming from the back of the shack, where the fishing boat was tied down at the pier. He recognized the voice coming from the pier; it was Tiber, crying out for help.

He ran through his destroyed home, racing towards the dock behind his house. What he saw made him cry out in panic: Tiber, his spear on the dock, held in the air by the tentacle of a Leviathan Grimm. Flipping Olympia into gun mode, he shot multiple electrified projectiles at the tentacle. A loud, echoing roar could be heard coming from underneath the peer. Horrified, Neptune watched the tentacle rear up into the sky. He realized what was going to happen a second before it did. Running forward, he changed his weapon into guandao form and jumped forward, using his Semblance to propel him forward, lashing out with his weapon. But he was to slow, his swing passing over Tiber's head as the Leviathan Grimm dragged him under water.

"No!" yelled Neptune. About to throw caution and fear to the wayside, Neptune was prepared to jump in after Tiber, when suddenly a large shadow passed over him. Turning around, Neptune faced the unfortunate circumstance of staring down the biggest Hydra he'd ever seen. It had eight heads, all moving around in a hypnotic rhythm. Covering each snake-like head was a mask, similar in design and color to a King Taijitu, only with a few extra swirls. Its skin was leathery and slimy, the pale color of a fish's underbelly.

Before Neptune had the chance to change Olympia to gun form, the Hydra charged him. Rolling to the side, Neptune was able to avoid being crushed by the massive bulk of the Hydra. As he came up in a crouch, he swiped the side of the Hydra with his guandao as it rushed past him.

Roaring in pain, it spun around, lashing out with it's massive fishtail. Jumping to avoid the tail, Neptune once again changed Olympia to trident form and stabbed the Hydra in its flank. As he placed his leg against the Hydra's flank to pull out his trident, the Hydra spun its heads like propeller blades, slamming two of its heads into Neptune's upper body.

The force of the blow sent Neptune flying into one of the posts where the last remaining boats were tied up, cracking it. Trembling, he pushed himself to his feet, trying to blink the black spots out of his vision.

His head snapped back to the Hydra as it reared all of its ugly heads and made a strange gurgling noise, Neptune's trident still impaled in its side. From the multitude of mouths, the Hydra spat out multiple projectiles of thick, purple fluid. Moving on a mixture of instinct and training, Neptune rushed forward, dodging and weaving his way through the purple blobs flying at him. As the blobs hit the dock, the wood hissed and smoldered, eaten away by the acid.

Jumping into the air to avoid the last splash of acid, Neptune used his Semblance to push himself through the air, the wind whistling in his ears as he did so. Using his momentum, he threw his weight against his trident, ripping open the abdominal cavity of the Hydra. But, the momentum wasn't enough to pull his trident out of the Hydra's flank.

Roaring in pain, the Hydra thrashed back and forth across the dock, trying to fling Neptune off. Holding on to his trident for dear life, Neptune pressed his thumb down on an aqua-green button on the shaft of the trident. A whirring sound could be heard as a strong electrical current built up on the blades of the trident. As Neptune was about to lose his grip, he hit the button again, releasing the built-up electrical current.

As the current ripped through the Hydra, its slimy skin flickering with blue electricity, it charred from the inside out, black smoke coming out of its wounds and mouths. Giving one last hoarse cry, the Hydra slumped forward, dead and charred. Sweaty and shaken, Neptune pulled his trident from the disintegrating carcass of the Hydra Grimm.

Shucking off his coat and pulling his goggles over his eyes, Neptune turned back to the sea, ready to throw himself into the drink and find Tiber. His mind simply could not wrap itself around the idea of Tiber's death. _Tiber's always been my responsibility. I can't let this happen. He's… Oh gods, he's all I have left._

But before he could throw himself into the sea, he heard a collection of growls coming from the base of the pier. Snapping his head around, Neptune sucked in a sharp breath as he looked at the small army of Grimm standing between him and dry land. If he threw himself into the sea, these aquatic Grimm would run him to ground and rip him apart before he ever had the chance to save Tiber.

Grinding his teeth in frustration and fear, Neptune muttered to himself, "Alright Neptune, time to man up or mouse off," as he prepared for the onslaught of Grimm.

XXXXX

The rest of Neptune's day was spent fighting for his life against the hordes of Grimm storming the pier. Electricity and metal clashed with flesh and claw as Neptune did his damnedest to survive the incessant onslaught of Grimm. But as the day wore on, his Aura began to fail him.

The first real hit he received was when a smaller cephalopod Leviathan wrapped a tentacle around Neptune's upper left arm, crushing it in a vice grip. With no Aura left, the Humerus bone in his left arm shattered under the pressure of the coiled tentacle. Crying out in pain, Neptune lashed out with the guandao in his right hand, cutting the tentacle off from around his left shoulder.

The next serious injury came from a four-clawed Cancer Grimm. As he cut off the claw of a smaller Cancer, he whirled around with his guandao, spinning it like a bo staff. However, he spun it to high, and was therefore unable to parry the strike from a larger Cancer Grimm that cut into the left side of his torso. Panting in a desperate bid not to pass out, he jumped upwards; he hit the button on the shaft of his trident to build up electricity. Using his Semblance, he shot downwards, impaling the larger Cancer. Releasing the button, he had his Semblance arc the electricity across the Cancer and other nearby Grimm, scorching them. Some were paralyzed, while others died from the shock of it all.

The straw that final broke the camels back came as the sun set and the moon began to show itself. Neptune could barely stand, his left arm useless, his left flank and leg covered in blood. Most of the Grimm where gone, but there were still enough on the pier that Neptune was still hard-pressed to survive. As Neptune twirled around with his guandao, holding it near the hilt of the blade, he sliced the head off of a small King Taijitu. He barely had enough time to roll to the side as the second head swung around to bite the air. As he got to his feet, he heard a small growl to his left. Before he could react, a Creep bit into his ankle, shredding muscles and tendons, it's powerful jaws grinding the bones together. Crying out, he swung the guandao in a low arc, decapitating the Creep.

However, there was nothing left to support his left leg and he toppled backwards, smacking his head on one of the pier's posts. Groaning in pain, he dragged himself into a sitting position, leaning against the post. With his right hand, he felt the back of his head, where it came away slick with blood.

Gasping for air and trembling, Neptune reached out for Olympia, changing it to plasma rifle form.

Looking down at himself, he couldn't help but wonder how he was still alive: his left arm lay uselessly next to his body, his white shirt and tie torn and bloody, especially above his left hip bone, the lower portion of his jeans ripped to shreds, his pants mostly covered in blood. As he looked across the pier, he saw all the black and red puddles of blood, the one-headed Taijitu cautiously slithering towards him. _Did I do all this?,_ thought Neptune, tired and delirious from blood loss.

As he watched the Taijitu crawl closer to him, Neptune couldn't help but think to himself, _Why did I let my emotions get to me like that? I should have pushed away my anger, fear, and guilt until I had gotten Tiber to safety. All these Grimm must have come to the docks because I was the only human left filled with negative emotion. How could I have been so stupid!?_

The Taijitu began to rear its head backwards, mouth agape to show off its large fangs, dripping with gray saliva. Neptune levered his plasma rifle onto his right leg, pointing it up at the giant snakes head. As he did his best to aim his rifle, his left goggle began to mist up, the glass of his right lens having been broken sometime during the fight. As a salty liquid dripped down to his lips, he realized he was crying. Whether it was from the pain of his injuries, his grief for his family, or for the lack of a future that he saw for himself, he couldn't stop the tears from falling. _Mom, dad, Tiber… I'm so sorry. I never should have left Vacuo. I should have stayed to protect you all. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry._

He was done. He had no hope of surviving this situation; his body was broken, Aura depleted. Hell, he couldn't even lift his arm high enough to aim his rifle. The rifle slipped from his hand, hitting the wood with a resounding thud.

He knew when the Taijitu decided to strike. Hissing a little louder than normal, the snake struck with lightning speed… or at least it would have, if not for the sword that beheaded it. Standing over the decaying corpse of the King Taijitu was Sage, lowering his giant sword, along with Scarlet and Sun.

They rushed over to Neptune, kneeling over him. Sun grabbed his head in his hands and leaned it up so that Neptune was looking at him. "Neptune! NEPTUNE! Pull yourself together! You have to-"

Sun was cut off when Neptune reached up and grabbed his necklace in a deceptively strong grip. Slowly, Neptune raised his left arm, trembling and sweaty, and pointed out to the ocean. "Tiber… a Leviathan… took Tiber. Help… please." Then his arms dropped, his left arm making a sickening crack sound as it hit the wooden boards of the dock.

Sun looked out to the ocean then back at Neptune, his face mirroring the horror that Neptune felt coursing through his veins like ice-water for hours. Turning to Sage and Scarlet, Sun said, "Guys, get him out of here now!" He let go of Neptune's face and turned to face the sea.

A look of concern on his face, Scarlet placed a hand on Sun's shoulder. "Hold on. Just what do you plan to do?"

Shrugging off Scarlet's hold, Sun took off his jacket and secured his gunchucks to his belt before saying, "Don't worry about that. Just get Neptune out of here before he bleeds out."

"But… Ok, fine." Turning around, Scarlet picked up Neptune's weapon and propped Neptune up on his shoulder as Sage braced himself for any incoming Grimm.

The last thing Neptune saw before he blacked out was Sun, his leader and best friend, take a running dive off the pier and into the black waves of the ocean.

Neptune snapped back to the present as he heard loud, jovial footsteps coming down the stairs. Turning around, Neptune saw Sun happily skipping down the stairs, a tray of food held in his hands.

Frowning, Sun said, "Hey man, what are you doing here? I said I would bring the food to you. You should be back in bed, _resting_." Neptune chose to ignore the heavy emphasis that Sun placed on his last word.

Grabbing hold of the inner-stairwell banner, Neptune heaved himself to his feet. Groaning, Neptune shuffled around so that he could face Sun as he came down the stairs. "Yeah, I know. I was just so bored. Anyway, you got my soup?"

Taking one hand off the tray, Sun waved off Neptune's concern. "Yeah, I got your soup. Herring soup, right?"

Sun laughed at the look of horror and indignation on Neptune's face, his mouth flapping open and closed as he searched for a scathing response. "Oh, I'm just messing with you man. I gotcha tomato."

Taking a deep breath, Neptune rubbed his brow in consternation. "Dude, really not in the mood for this crap." Neptune limped down the stairs, grumbling the whole way down.

Sun grimaced as he saw Neptune limp down the stairs, holding onto the banner so that he wouldn't trip. A wave of guilt washed over him as he thought of how he found Neptune and his hometown a few months ago. _I should have gotten to him sooner._ Blinking the sleep from his eyes, Sun followed Neptune down the stairs and back to the sick ward.

XX Two Days Later – Sunday Morning XX

Sun adjusted the wrist bracer on his right forearm. He was sitting on a crate in what remained of the helipad field behind the main building of Shade Academy. This had been one of the primary evacuation sites for citizens during what some of the remaining hunters were calling the Purge.

Even four months later, few citizens have returned to Vacuo. And for good reason: the North and West parts of the city were still a mess and overrun by Grimm. Crime rates were through the roof and law enforcement and hunter ranks have been depleted during the Purge. Not to mention, there's been rumors circulating of a serial killer who may or may not be targeting hunters.

The government has been doing it's best to send out pleas of help to the other kingdoms, as well as hiring infrastructure workers and more huntsmen and huntresses to help with reconstruction of the city and extermination of the Grimm, respectively.

Sadly, the results have been mixed. Vale had sent contracted hunters as well as labor workers, but some envoys were attacked by herds of Grimm, dwindling the number of hunters and workers that reached Vacuo. This had an adverse effect on training academies across the four kingdoms: seeing the true risk to their lives, many students dropped out of Academies, such as Haven, Beacon, and the Atlas Military Academy.

Atlas had few huntsmen and huntresses to begin with, what with most of them being conscripted into the military. However, they were able to send over a hundred Atlesian Paladin-290 and three hundred Atlesian Knight-200 models via military transport airships. While this had made eliminating Grimm easier, maintaining the robotic soldiers was a difficult task, what with Vacuo's currently limited resources. Luckily, Mistral was able to send engineers and workers, as well as transporting construction materials. The issue, however, is that Mistral needed to ship the material in small amounts, with a small transport personnel, so as to avoid attracting the attention of Grimm like the Vale contingent.

Trying to get his mind off the envoys, Sun looked across the helipad field. It was littered with crates of varying sizes, with claw and scorch marks engraved into the concrete terrace. Few Bullheads and armored airships where left in Vacuo, most having been used to send evacuees to Vale. Luckily, most of the citizens had been evacuated before the Grimm made it this far into the city.

Sun sighed as he got off the crate. Sage and Scarlet were already in a Bullhead. All they were waiting for was Neptune. Over the last two days, he had rested enough that his arm and side no longer bothered him, but he still had a slight limp.

Sun remembered when they got Neptune back to Shade. The doctors had worked on him for almost a week, trying to close wounds and set the broken bones in his body. The worse had been his leg. The surgeons worked for three straight days trying to reattach muscle and ligaments and drilling nails and metal rods into the bones to keep it together. There was only so much they could do before they had to let his Aura do the work. The doctor's main concern was Neptune's blood loss; with all the injured and dying brought to Shade to seek medical attention, the blood banks had all but dried up. But despite the odds, Neptune had pulled through after a month of rest and on-and-off surgery.

But he was no longer the Neptune that Sun remembered. He didn't laugh, he barely smiled. He stopped dressing stylishly, wearing a bland white shirt and baggy cargo pants.

So Sun was surprised when he saw Neptune walk towards the Bullhead, dressed in his signature jeans and pads, wearing a nice white dress shirt. He had forgone his standard black tie and left the top button undone. His jacket was missing, lost on the pier of his destroyed home. His gun was strapped to his back. But he still didn't smile. If anything, he looked angry, stalking towards the Bullhead.

Neptune saw Sun gaping at him as he came close. Scratching the back of his head, Neptune said, "Quit gawking at me. I'm trying to pull myself together, ok? I can't exactly keep sulking with my thumbs up my ass."

Sun raised an eyebrow at that. As a rule of thumb ( _get the image of Neptune's thumbs up his ass out of your head, man!_ ), Neptune doesn't swear. Ever. He was still processing everything that happened to his family. _Man, I do not wanna be there when he loses it._

Shaking his head, Sun said, "Oooook… Anyway, you ready to go?" He was still concerned about Neptune's health, but Neptune waved off his concern.

"Yeah, I'm ready to get out of Vacuo," Neptune grumbled, and stalked off to the Bullhead. Sighing, Sun rubbed his temples as he followed Neptune into the hull.

XX Sunday Evening XX

"Nora, wait a minute. I'm almost done making dinner." Ren was currently busy in the kitchen, preparing a confectionary dinner for Nora. Pyrrha had grabbed dinner in the cafeteria with Jaune. Unlike Nora they didn't want chocolate pancakes for dinner.

Ren was almost done when Jaune and Pyrrha came in to join them. Pyrrha sat next to Nora at the counter opposite the one Ren was working on. Jaune stood next to the counter leaning his arms on it as he watched Ren work. "Yeesh. Ren, how many batches of pancakes have you made for Nora?"

Ren turned to face them, a bowl and whisk in hand, his "Please Do Nothing To The Chef" apron all scuffed and covered in floor, milk, and chocolate sauce. His face appeared haggard, faint stubble growing across his jaw. "This would be the 46th batch in the last…," Ren turned to look at the clock before continuing, "… hour. I don't think the kitchen has any more ingredients left for me to work with."

Pyrrha laughed as Jaune let loose a low whistle. "My goodness, Nora. Lay off poor Ren; he looks like he's about to faint," Pyrrha said, doing her best to scold Nora, but she couldn't keep the smile off her face as Nora pouted.

"But I'm hungry! Besides, Ren doesn't mind, do you Ren?" said Nora, turning a truly terrifying smile onto her teammates. _Holy crapcakes, she looks like a gargoyle,_ thought Jaune.

Taking a step back from the counter, and more importantly away from Nora, Jaune said, "On that very creepy smile, I need to get going. I got that make up test for Dust Manipulation class tomorrow, so I'm going to go study with uncle Thaddeus. It'll probably run late as usual, so I'll probably end up sleeping on his couch. See you guys tomorrow."

As Jaune turned to leave, Pyrrha got up from her seat next to Nora and crossed the kitchen to give Jaune a hug. "We believe in you, Jaune. I'm sure that you'll do just fine." Jaune felt his heart melt a little at the supportive gesture. Despite essentially abandoning his team over a year ago, they had not only forgiven him, but they had also welcomed him back like a beloved family member. Pyrrha was by far the most "affectionate" of all of Team JNPR. Always keeping tabs on him, always encouraging him on his tests. The whole "falling asleep in his bed" thing was a bit excessive, but he wouldn't hold that against her. Honestly, he enjoyed snuggling with her, and it gave them both emotional comfort.

Smiling, Jaune disentangled himself from Pyrrha's hug, and said, "Thanks. I'll see you guys tomorrow after the test." He left the kitchen with a little bounce in his step.

Ren paused whipping the pancake mix together. "I must admit, Jaune is doing rather well on his make-up tests for last year. It was kind of Professor Ozpin to give him a dispensation." Because of the tests that he had missed, Jaune legally could not take any courses for the following year. So, Professor Ozpin set up a mock examination session for Jaune. He had until next semester to finish all 10 of his make-up exams. While that would still leave him a semester behind everyone else, he would still be in the same year.

Standing up on her stool at the counter, Nora pointed a finger at Ren, her other arm akimbo in a power pose. "Less talking, more baking! I'M HUNGRY!" With that, Ren began whipping the batch together with more force.

Pyrrha couldn't help it; there was something just so sweet about the amount of effort Ren put into making Nora happy. Smiling, Pyrrha excused herself from the kitchen to get some extra training.

"Oh, Pyrrha! Yang and Ruby got back last night. You could probably ask one of them to spar with you," called Ren, after pouring the pancake mixture onto a skillet.

Smiling, Pyrrha called from the doorway, "Thank you, Ren," and left.

As Pyrrha shut the double swinging doors of the kitchen, Ren smelled something burning. Turning back to the skillet, he saw that he had set the temperature to high and the pancake was currently burning. He went ramrod stiff as a very distinct, female growling could be heard behind him. "Reeeen…"

XXXXX

Jaune sat in the copilot seat of the Bullhead, going over the aerial maps of the compound one last time. The facility was three hours out from Vale, and about thirteen hours out from Vacuo, somewhere on the border of the two kingdoms.

He had brought Sturm and Drang, his collapsible baton and tranq gun. He also had four concussion grenades, and ammo for Drang, filled with knockout formula. He was already dressed in his black coat and pants, held up by a silver belt, his black body armor underneath. His Nevermore mask covered most of his face, only exposing his mouth.

"Alright, we are right above the storage facility. You know the drill?" said Thaddeus from the pilots seat.

Counting points off his fingers, Jaune began listing. "Drop off the Bullhead. Take in the kinetic energy of the drop. Knock out any guards around the building. Take out any guards inside that aren't in storage room. Grab the Onyx Pinion and take out the rest of the guards in the flashiest way possible. Got 45 minutes to get this all done."

"'Atta boy. And if you run into any trouble?"

"I have the distress signal in my belt. If there's a problem, I activate it. You'll circle around in a one-mile radius. In case something happens, you'll pick me up in five minutes."

Thaddeus turned to him with a smile on his face. "Go get the job done."

Smiling back at him, Jaune stood up from the seat and walked to the hangar doors. As he pushed the button to open them, he called over his shoulder, "May the Phantom Nevermore live in infamy!"

As the doors opened, a resounding call of "May he live in infamy!" could be heard coming out of the cockpit. Smiling to himself, Jaune stepped out into nothing and let gravity do its work.

As terrifying as it was at first, the weightlessness of freefalling, mixed with the feeling of the wind tearing at his clothes and skin, gave Jaune the illusion of flying.

After what felt like forever, but couldn't have been more than a few minutes, Jaune's feet touched the ground. Not only was his landing silent, but it gave him a wealth of energy. Rolling his shoulders, Jaune walked over to the edge of the roof.

Thanks to their intel, Jaune already knew that there where no guards posted on the roof. Peering over the edges, he looked around. There where only two guards: one at the back of the building by the loading-bay doors, and the other standing by the only proper entrance into the building. _Seriously, only two guards AGAIN? What's up with this? Ugh, whatever. Take out the one in the back, and then sneak around the building for the other._

Standing right above the first guard, Jaune dropped off the roof. One second, two seconds, and then he was right behind the guard, only a foot of air standing between them. As Jaune rose up from his crouch, he could see the guard stiffen and he heard a very audible inhalation. The Faunus was sniffing the air.

Reacting fast, Jaune whipped out Sturm from one of his belt pockets. As Sturm snapped out to its full length, the guard whipped around, gun raised. But he never got to pull the trigger. In fact, he never got to make a noise as Jaune whapped Sturm across the side of the guard's neck and flicked a switch in the hilt. A crackle of electricity could be heard as the guard stiffened, then collapsed. Jaune caught the guard up against himself and lowered him and the gun to the ground.

Climbing back up to the roof, Jaune checked the front entrance. The guard was still there, twirling a pair of knives in his hands, his gun strapped to his back.

After the fiasco that was his last heist, Jaune wanted to make sure this job went off without a hitch. So, he decided to use an old trick of his. Taking a five Lien coin out of his pocket, he threw it into the darkness. A small clinking noise could be heard as the coin hit a tree or a rock.

The Faunus' head snapped upwards, his hands tightening their grip on his knives. Turning his head in the general direction of the noise, the guard slowly started edging his way towards the noise, away from the storehouse.

That was all Jaune needed. Raising Drang, he shot a dart into the back of the guard's neck. The guard stumbled. Dropping his knives, the guard reached for the back of his neck before his knees gave out.

Burning through some of his kinetic energy, Jaune used his enhanced speed to run down the side of the building and catch the guard by the scruff of his uniform before he unceremoniously face-planted. After placing the guard on the ground, Jaune took a second to take in the moment. He couldn't hear anything, nor see any movement around the warehouse. _Alright, so far so good._

Placing his ear next to the door, he made sure that no one was on the other side waiting for him. Confirming that no one was waiting to ambush him, he turned the knob.

XXXXX

Blaze watched from his place in the rafters as a man decked out all in black gear walked into the storeroom. The storeroom was a large, empty space with catwalks wrapping around the upper floor, windows running along the wall along with the catwalk. Littered across the ground floor were boxes, packages, and crates, all of varying shapes and sizes. In the middle of the room, seen directly from the door, was a small, gray box.

Black on black, the Phantom Nevermore was dressed in the color from his hair down to his boots. He wore a stylish coat with a ring of black feathers in the collar. His pants were an equally dark shade and unless Blaze was mistaken, his hands were covered in black gloves. Blaze couldn't see any weapons, so he could only assume that the thief had them holstered along his belt.

The black-clad figure walked up to the small, gray box and picked it up in one hand. "Honestly? Oh, here's a special little box. I wonder what could possibly be inside? People, if you are going to ambush me, at least put a little effort into it." The thief began circling around the stacks of crates, saying, "Oh yoo-hoo, where are you~?" Coming back to middle of the room, the thief called out, "Seriously? Ladies and germs of the White Fang, this is quite the letdown." Looking down at the box, Blaze could hear the thief grumble, "Maybe this is a bomb. At least that would throw a little excitement into this drab job."

 _Still as cocky as in the video, huh? I would have thought that his encounter with Mercury would have knocked some of that out of him._ Raising Burn in his left hand, he cocked the gun, waiting for the avian-themed thief to open the box. In his other hand Blaze held his own Grimm mask. _Guess its time to get to work_ , he thought to himself as he placed the mask on his face.

Removing the lid of the box, the Phantom Nevermore reached inside and retrieved the "Onyx Pinion." Letting loose a melodic laugh, the thief made a sweeping gesture across the room. "If anyone is indeed watching me, I would like to humbly thank you for such an auspicious-" Blaze pulled the trigger of Burn.

 _ **A/N: Whew, some heavy stuff. Sorry about that, but like I said earlier, tragedy breeds adversity. I know it's not always that way, but sometimes people need a catalyst to set a fire under their asses and do something about themselves or their situation. Lord knows I did.**_

 _ **Anyway, next chapter is my first real fight scene! I don't know about you guys, but I am super excited about that!**_

 _ **P.S. And remember, don't be a hater, but be a CONGRATULATOR! (Yeah, I think at this point, I'm just gonna make this my "thing" now.)**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**I don't own RWBY. I make no money from this, it's just something I like doing when I got some time to myself.**_

 _ **A/N: Exams are over! I'm alive! IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS! WOOOOOO! . . . I suddenly feel very lightheaded. I'm going to try and post the first real chapter of From Humble Beginnings this Friday, and like I promised, it's a long bastard. So, hope you guys are looking forward to that. Just so you know, this chapter had no input from LL. I figured it's about time I stopped asking him to hold my hand. Quick shoutout to LL: thank you so much for always being quick to answer me with any questions I had, and thank you for being understanding. I hope that you continue to put stuff out on , because honestly, your stuff's a joy to read. Now that I'm done being a bit of a fanboy, I'mma lay down and finally get some sleep. While I do that, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.**_

 **Chapter 4: Hunting Dog vs. Bird of Prey**

Smiling as he held aloft the Onyx Pinion, Jaune said, "If anyone is indeed watching me, I would like to humbly thank you for such an auspicious-" He was cut off by a gunshot. Acting on pure instinct, he flipped Sturm out of his belt, spun around and smacked the bullet out of the air. He heard it ricochet into the cement floor. "… gift," Jaune finished, sliding the Onyx Pinion into one of his pockets.

Rising from a crouch opposite him, blocking the only proper entrance out of here was what he could only describe as a crimson Grimm.

As the _thing_ rose from it's crouch, Jaune realized it wasn't a Grimm, but a man. He was dressed in a deep crimson coat, the color of freshly drying blood, with the collar flipped up, gauntlets peeking out of the sleeves. Underneath the coat was body armor of a similar color. Held in the right gauntlet was a gun with twin red stripes.

As the man drew himself to his full height, Jaune noticed something rather disturbing. Besides being even to him in height, the man wore a crimson Beowolf mask. Where the red lines would normally be were replaced by white. The orange eyes of the mask glistened in the overhead fluorescent lighting, along with his long, red hair that went all the way to the base of his spine.

Resting his baton across his shoulder, Jaune let loose a low whistle. "Well, you most certainly know how to make an entrance, good sir. Whomever might you be?" Jaune's question was met with silence. "Oh, the strong and silent type, are we? Well, will you at least give me a name?" As a response to Jaune's question, the crimson figure stretched his neck from side-to-side, letting out two very loud and noticeable cracks. Tapping his chin with a finger, Jauned hummed to himself before snapping his fingers. "Oh, I know! I'll call you Fluffy!"

As Jaune finished his sentence, he heard a loud crack and the sound of rushing wind. Where Fluffy had been standing was nothing but cracked cement. Next thing Jaune knew, his legs had been knocked out from under him and for a moment it was like he was suspended upside-down in midair. He felt something ruffle along his pockets as the next thing he knew, something hit him in the back, sending him up into the ceiling.

The blow hurt, but not as much as it could have. Part of Thaddeus' training for Jaune was to learn how to switch between using his Aura and using his Semblance. But, the fact that Fluffy would hit him in the back meant that he already knew what his Semblance was. _That can't be right. The White Fang members never figured out my Semblance… unless they had video footage of my encounters with Team RWBY and Team SNPR… OH FUCK-ME-SIDEWAYS!_

Jaune grabbed one of the rafter beams, and using his momentum like a swing, landed on it feet-first. As he stood, he passed his free hand over his silver Nevermore belt buckle, clicking a button on the top wing of the bird. _Well, this fell apart quicker then expected. Five minutes, Jaune. You only have to deal with this psycho for five minutes._

Jaune heard a distinct groaning noise behind him. Turning around, he saw Fluffy standing on a separate beam. As Fluffy shifted his weight, Jaune could hear more groaning coming from the beam underneath his feet. _Saints, how much does this guy weigh?_ Out of the corner of his eye, he spied a bent beam near the door that led to the rest of the facility. _I wonder how long this guy was waiting for me?_

Leveling his baton at Fluffy, Jaune asked, "So, did the White Fang hire some extra muscle, or are you a real believer of the cause?" Fluffy responded by reaching into his jacket, unsheathing a double-edged short-sword and swinging it at his face. Jaune brought Sturm up to block the strike.

He'd once used his Semblance to absorb the kinetic energy of a knife while training with Thaddeus, and while the blade had slowed to a complete stop, the blade had still cut open the palm of his hand. Besides, he couldn't absorb kinetic energy through Sturm, but he could re-direct absorbed energy into his muscles to strengthen himself and hyper-stimulate his quick-twitch muscles.

As Fluffy's sword came into contact with Jaune's baton, Jaune was shocked at how strong his opponent was. In a split second, he tried to redirect more of the energy he had collected during the drop, but he couldn't do it quickly enough. While he was able to block the strike, it knocked him off the beam. Landing on the concrete feet first, he looked up to see Fluffy level a gun at him. Instead of running, Jaune stood tall, waiting to absorb the energy of the bullet. So he was more than surprised when, instead of a bullet speeding out of the barrel, a condensed ball of fire came rocketing at him.

Whipping out Drang, Jaune shot a fléchette into the fiery projectile, causing it to implode mid-air. _Well, this changes things… a lot._

Fluffy switched out his sword for a second gun with twin blue stripes. _Ok, seriously?! This is crap!_ ,thought Jaune as he weaved between crates, burning through kinetic energy to avoid what he assumed were bullets of fire and ice raining down on him.

Hiding behind a crate, Jaune unhooked one of his concussion grenades and pulled the pin. _That's it. Time to tip the scales._ He waited three seconds as more shots came down from the rafters before tossing the grenade over the crate and running. The explosion wouldn't do him any harm, but he didn't want to give Fluffy an easy target.

Fluffy tried to shoot the grenade with a fireball when Jaune had first thrown it, but missed. This split second lapse in accuracy allowed the concussion grenade to go off at the peak of its arc, near the rafters, knocking Fluffy off them and into a wall.

Jaune watched with no small amount of satisfaction as the impact caused part of the upper wall and ceiling to fall on Fluffy, burying him in rubble and dust. "Well, I would say it's been a pleasure, but honestly Fluffy, you-" Jaune was cut off mid-gloat as the pile of debris shifted and Fluffy popped up in a cacophony of noise and dust, holding a large chunk of the cement wall that fell on him. "… are a bloody pain in my ass," Jaune finished, grimacing.

He was already in motion before Fluffy threw the chunk of concrete. Sliding underneath the boulder, Jaune rushed Fluffy, hoping to catch him off-guard.

Lashing out with Sturm, Jaune aimed for Fluffy's neck in an attempt to shock him. In retaliation, Fluffy whipped out the double-edged sword once again to meet Jaune's strike. Having learned his lesson, Jaune ducked, avoiding Fluffy's sword all together, and jabbed Sturm at Fluffy's stomach. With his other hand, Fluffy reached into his coat and whipped out a second sword, this one shaped in wave-like patterns, and caught Sturm in one of the waves in the blade.

Swinging the double-edged blade in a downward vertical arc, Fluffy tried to cut Jaune in half. With Sturm still stuck in the wave sword, Jaune was stuck low to the ground. Pushing himself to the side with one foot, Jaune was leaning on his side as the blade passed by his face… only to stop and twist, so that the edge of the blade was again in his face. Jaune jumped just in time, the sword passing horizontally where his face was less then a second ago. Using his downward momentum, Jaune lashed out with both legs, striking Fluffy in the chest with kinetic-imbued strength. Jaune's kick was blocked by the flat side of the double-edged sword. Thankfully, it was enough for Jaune to push against the sword and jump away, dislodging his baton from the wave-like sword and pulling Fluffy off balance.

Jaune looked around the room, starting to panic. _I can't hit this guy! There has to be something in here that can help me!_ That's when he saw the cement block, and more importantly, the crates it had broken open. Jaune could feel the smile growing across his face as he saw the sleek black frame peeking out from one of the broken crates. _Oh, you beautiful piece of hardware, come to papa!_

XXXXX

Sun wasn't sure if he was imagining the black Bullhead, or if it was just some cloud that he was fixating his imagination on.

Team SSSN had been traveling in the Bullhead for almost fourteen straight hours, and people where starting to get antsy. Scarlet had been humming the same sailor song for almost five hours, Sage was doing one-armed push ups, Neptune was pacing in the cargo hold of the Bullhead, and Sun was so bored that he was imagining some of the most difficult fights in his life: his first fight against Sage, him and Blake fighting against that weirdo with the canecannon, him and Neptune fighting Grimm while in Vale, and most recently, him and the rest of Team SNPR fighting the Phantom Nevermore.

Which was the main reason why it took him a second to realize that he was not hallucinating the black Bullhead, but that it really was there, heading slightly North. Sun felt a giddy rush of anxiety pass through him as he recognized and, more importantly, remembered who owned that Bullhead.

Turning around in his chair, Sun tapped the pilot on the shoulder. "What is it, kid?" asked the pilot, more than a little grumpy. After all, he'd been piloting the Bullhead for fourteen hours without a break (he needed to use the W.C. very, very badly).

Pointing at the black Bullhead, Sun said, "I need you to follow that Bullhead."

Grimacing, the pilot replied, "Are you serious? We still have four more hours of flying! I'm not going to go chase after-"

"Look, just trust me on this! It's important!" Sun didn't wait for a response as he rushed out of the cockpit.

Flabbergasted, the pilot changed course to follow the other Bullhead. "Well, at least I might be able to take a piss soon," he grumbled to himself.

XXXXX

Jaune wrenched the black frame from the crate and swung it around to face Fluffy, who had regained his footing. Flipping the safety mechanism off, Jaune pointed the transportable turret at Fluffy, and said, "Here, have some lead. My treat."

As Jaune pushed the trigger, Fluffy flipped his double-edged sword upside-down and pressed his thumb on the end of the hilt. To Jaune's dismay, as the bullets flew through the air, Fluffy's sword literally expanded outwards from the razor-sharp edges, forming a rectangular, metal riot shield with the word Defensorem running from the pointed tip up to the hilt.

Stabbing the pointed base of the riot shield into the cement, Fluffy hunkered down behind the riot shield as bullets collided against it. _Ok, stay positive! This is good. If I can just keep him stuck there until Thaddeus gets here then- Oh shit!_

Jaune let go of the turret and jumped to the side just in time. From behind the shield flailed a razor-edged whip. Moving through the air like an undulating snake, it cut the turret from muzzle to trigger, leaving a shallow groove in the cement. As the halves of the turret fell to the floor, Fluffy pulled Defensorem from the ground, hitting the button on the bottom of the hilt in the process, causing the sword to go back to its original form. In his other hand, trailing along the ground was the serrated whip. From the tip to the hilt, it was made up of segmented pieces of the wave sword held together by some kind of metal rope.

Releasing an exasperated sigh, Jaune said, "You don't believe in making my life easy, do you?" Fluffy's response was to hit a button on the hilt of the whip. With a slithering noise, the whip segmented back together into the wave-like sword with a series of loud metal clangs. Without preamble, Fluffy threw both swords up into the air and whipped out his twin pistols and began firing.

With his enhanced speed, Jaune weaved his way forward between the bullets of fire and ice. "Honestly, enough with the damn Dust rounds!" he yelled as he closed in on Fluffy. As he struck out with Sturm, Fluffy threw both his pistols in the air and snatched both swords out of the air as they neared his head, swinging one of them down to block Jaune's baton. Stomping his foot to stop his forward momentum, Jaune twirled and crouched, swinging Sturm at Fluffy's midriff, but was blocked by Fluffy's second sword.

Dodging the downward slash of Fluffy's other sword, Jaune kept close to Fluffy, using his superior speed, along with Sturm and Drang, in an attempt to keep Fluffy on the defensive.

The next minute was a literal blur to Jaune, as he burned through his kinetically stored energy, augmenting his physical speed and strength to keep up with Fluffy. Fluffy countered Jaune's speed by constantly throwing his weapons into the air at different heights and catching them, keeping Jaune from predicting how Fluffy will attack until he has a gun or a sword (or both) pointed at his face.

As fire and ice was met with fléchettes and metal, Jaune high-kicked Fluffy's arm, sending his gun with the twin blue stripes on the other side of the room. Thinking that he might have a momentary breather, Jaune disengaged Fluffy by striking out with Sturm with as much kinetic energy as his tired muscles could manage. Storing away his other gun, Fluffy caught both of his swords out of the air and brought them in front of himself in an X-formation, blocking Jaune's overhead strike, creating a booming metal clang.

While the strike was blocked, it was packed with so much energy that Fluffy was knocked halfway across the room. Digging his boots into the ground in an attempt to slow his momentum, Fluffy left a pair of long furrows in the cement.

Jaune leaned against his baton like a walking stick, gasping for breath. He could feel the sweat rolling down the back of his neck and face. He'd never maintained a constant stream of kinetic energy for that long, and it was starting to take a noticeable toll. He'd done it before in his brief fight against Neo, but that had lasted only a couple dozen seconds before Mercury had intervened. But now his limbs were trembling from over-exertion and he felt like he was running a fever.

Jaune's head snapped upwards as he heard a horrible shrieking noise. Fluffy had stopped his backwards momentum by stabbing both of his swords into the cement, leaving even more furrows in the floor. As he came to a stop, Fluffy leaned back on his swords, and then rocketed forward, leaving another crack in the cement.

Before Jaune could bring Sturm up to parry any incoming blows, Fluffy grabbed Jaune around the waist, and using his momentum, dropped to one knee and slid around Jaune. Lifting Jaune off his feet, Fluffy leaned back and brought Jaune careening into the ground head first with enough force to create a small crater in the cement floor. With dust and debris flying in all directions a loud, sickening crunch could be heard throughout the building and surrounding forest as the building noticeably shook from the impact.

Luckily for Jaune, he had deactivated his Semblance as Fluffy was lifting him, allowing his Aura to take the brunt of the damage from the supplex maneuver. Still, his head was pounding and he could barely see straight with double vision. As he tried to push himself to his feet, he felt a hand wrap around his ankle. _Oh fu-_

With physical strength that should not have been possible for a regular human, Fluffy swung Jaune into an upward arc, before swinging him down towards the cement. Using his Semblance, Jaune was able to stop himself from eating cement by bracing his forearms, absorbing the kinetic energy of his own body. But Fluffy wasn't done with him, swinging Jaune into another arc and bringing him down on his back with only his Aura to cushion the impact. The impact was jarring, creating more cracks in the already broken-up cement.

Giving Jaune no time to recover, Fluffy twisted around and threw Jaune across the room where he had left his swords in the cement. As Jaune tried to right himself in midair, he heard a, at this point recognizable, crack split the air. Fluffy had pushed off from the lip of the crater, catching up to Jaune in the air. As they passed over his swords, Fluffy reached out and grabbed the wave sword out of the ground and brought it up over his head, barely slowing his own midair momentum.

As Fluffy brought the sword down on Jaune, Jaune reacted on pure instinct, snatching Drang out of his holster and firing on Fluffy at point-blank range. This forced Fluffy to redirect his strike and block the fléchette. But he wasn't done, reaching out for Jaune with his free hand.

Hoping to keep Fluffy from getting a hold of him again, Jaune swung out with Sturm, hoping to knock Fluffy's hand away. To Jaune's growing horror, Fluffy caught Sturm mid-swing. Going for broke, Jaune flicked the switch to activate the electrical current.

As the current ran through the baton, Jaune could see electrical sparks running across the back of Fluffy's gauntlet. However, instead of letting go of the baton, Fluffy gripped it harder, and with a vicious squeeze, broke Sturm in two. That was a _huge_ mistake.

To Jaune's literal and metaphorical shock, green electricity arced out of the broken end of Sturm in his hand. The expulsion of energy from the Verdant Leaf Dust Crystal was extraordinary. The electricity jumped across Fluffy's gauntlets, armor and sword, as well as any metal on Jaune.

As the electrical output rapidly reached it's peak, the energy blew outward like an explosion, blowing out the windows and sending the two combatants in opposite directions; Jaune was blown up into the wall with a resounding crack and fell on the catwalk, while Fluffy was blown into the cement floor with enough force to leave a literal lasting impression in the cement.

Gingerly, Jaune slowly picked himself up; he couldn't help but think, _Uncle Thaddeus is going to be pissed_. Looking down at the ragged metal end of what was left of Sturm, Jaune thought, _He's going to be_ so _pissed_. Peering over the railing, Jaune smiled as he saw Fluffy spread-eagle _in_ the cement. _Glad to see that I actually did_ something _to that solid SOB._ Dry-coughing some of the cement dust out of his lungs, Jaune grimaced. _Gah, my everything hurts. Thaddeus, where the hell are you?!_

Jaune flinched as a dry, hot gust of wind blew in through the broken window behind him. Turning around, he let loose a short bark of hysterical laughter as he saw Thaddeus' black Bullhead hovering outside the window, the black silencing glyph almost impossible to see on the side of the Bullhead. "About damn time," he muttered. But his good mood was short-lived as a loud crack rang through the room. Turning around to the sound of shifting concrete, Jaune looked on as Fluffy, his coat disheveled and torn, his red hair matted with cement dust, stood in the middle of a very human looking hole, looking right back at Jaune. Despite his disheveled appearance and his left arm hanging uselessly at his side, Fluffy still made a rather imposing figure.

Jaune should feel scared. He knew he should, but all he felt was an ever-growing sense of anger and frustration. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the Dust tracker and held it up to the light so Fluffy could see it as well. "A yellow Dust tracker, huh? If I'm not mistaken, that's Medallion Yellow No. 3. That's some high-end stuff. To bad for you, you're a _horrible_ pickpocket," said Jaune, not bothering to hide his disdain before throwing the Dust tracker at Fluffy.

Fluffy caught it with his right hand and crushed it, a flicker of yellow light flickering through his fingers before dying. Jaune raised an eyebrow at Fluffy's rather stupid action. _Well, someone is clearly unimpressed_.

Slowly, Fluffy bent down and grabbed the wave sword from the ground. Almost faster then Jaune could see, Fluffy flung the sword into one of the pillars holding up the catwalk underneath Jaune. Just as quickly, Fluffy pulled the other sword out of the ground and threw it a few feet higher than the first sword. Jaune backed away from the railing as realization dawned on him of just what Fluffy was doing.

With a violent crack, Fluffy careened forward. Landing on the first sword, he used it like a springboard to boost himself up to the second sword. As he neared the second sword, he grabbed the handle and using his momentum, he swung up onto it and also used it as a springboard.

By this point, Jaune had had enough of dealing with this psycho. Turning around, he flung open the door and was about to rush in as Fluffy appeared, his momentum flinging him past the catwalk and up towards the ceiling. Reaching into his coat with his good arm, Fluffy pulled out his pistol and opened fire on Jaune. Whipping Drang from its holster, Jaune returned fire, the fireballs imploding in midair.

As Jaune stepped into the Bullhead, Fluffy landed on the railing and got off one last shot. Turning around to fire one more fléchette, Jaune wasn't entirely sure if he believed what he saw: as the fireball exited the muzzle, black fire seeped out of the slits in Fluffy's gauntlet. A line of the black fire snaked into the fireball as it left the gun, causing the fireball to swell up and turn black and purple. Not knowing what else to do, Jaune fired the last fléchette in his clip.

As the fléchette hit the fireball, instead of imploding like the others, the black fireball exploded outwards in chunks of fiery debris. Most of it hit the sides of the Bullhead, but one particularly large piece flew into the hull of the Bullhead, almost hitting Jaune in the process. Turning his head over his shoulder, Jaune yelled at the cockpit, "Get us out of here!"

As the Bullhead began moving away from the storage facility, Fluffy began running towards the Bullhead. Jaune knew it wouldn't be enough to close and lock the door; from what he'd seen so far, he wouldn't be surprised if Fluffy jumped onto the exterior hull and ripped it open as they flew away.

So as Fluffy dove for the Bullhead's entrance, Jaune made what was probably one of the most reckless decisions of his life so far. Using what little kinetic energy he had left, he took a step forward and leaned backwards, thrusting his leg out in a lightning fast kick. He wasn't sure if Fluffy was just tired or didn't expect the kick, but it caught him square in the stomach. Levering his body back up, Jaune brought his foot down and using it as a pivot, brought his other leg up and side-kicked Fluffy in the neck, sending him careening back onto the catwalk.

Slamming the door shut, Jaune watched through the small, reinforced window in the door as they flew away from the storage facility. Through the window, Jaune saw Fluffy standing in the arch of the window. Throwing his head back, Fluffy let loose a roar that was most definitely _not_ human. Jaune couldn't help but suppress a shiver as his mind raced, trying to figure out just what could possibly make a sound like _that_. _Seriously? The first noise he makes all night, and he doesn't even sound human? What's this guys deal?_

Blinking away his exhaustion, Jaune made his way to the cockpit, trying to ignore the ringing in his ears from Fluffy's screaming. In the darkness inside the bullhead, Jaune couldn't see the clump of black fire flickering against the metal of the hull.

 _ **A/N: Hope you all enjoyed that fight. Been building up to it for a while (Hindsight speaking: damn, I am terrible when it comes to posting in a timely manner!). Anyway, I hope you all survived your exams, and I hope you all get to enjoy the holidays.**_

 _ **P.S. This is a bit of a sidenote, but about two weeks ago a car hit a couple of friends of mine. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt, but they had to go to the hospital. This isn't a plug for comments or anything; I don't want you to post anything about this. I just want to ask you guys if you could keep my friends in your prayers and thoughts, or if you aren't religious, please send them your best wishes. Honestly, without those two I'd probably have given up on university a long time ago (and I'd probably be more of a whiny bitch than I already am). Thank you in advance for your understanding and support.**_

 _ **P.P.S. And remember, don't be a hater, but be a CONGRATULATOR! (But seriously, happy holidays everybody.)**_


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